To An Aesthete Dying Young

A native of the Southwest, Gary Tillery was born in Phoenix, Arizona. After service in Vietnam he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies from Arizona State University and a Master’s degree from the Thunderbird School of Global Management. After two decades in the business world, Tillery turned his time and energy to his lifelong passion for literature and art. He published a collection of interrelated short stories set in Vietnam titled Darkling Plain, and began a series of comic detective novels featuring the ＂soft-boiled＂ private eye, Jack Savage. Tillery’s fascination with ＂the intellectual Beatle,＂ John Lennon, led him to write The Cynical Idealist. This 2009 biography dissects Lennon’s creative work and interviews to reveal his self-generated humanist philosophy. He followed up The Cynical Idealist with Working Class Mystic, a comparable study of ＂the quiet Beatle,＂ George Harrison, which explored Harrison’s spiritual journey as a Hindu. A third book in the series, The Seeker King: A Spiritual Biography of Elvis Presley, was published by Quest Books in 2013. Tillery is also a professional artist. His most prominent work is the sculpture for the Vietnam Memorial in Chicago. He also created the bronze bust of Steve Allen for the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood; and through his association with the Rotblatt-Amrany Studio he created, among other works, the life-size bronze of Luis Aparicio at U. S. Cellular Field and two twelve-foot bronzes of Denny Sanford at the Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Tillery’s works are in the private collections of Patricia DuPont and General Tommy Franks, and in the permanent collection of the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago.