Paul Soldner

[2] Paul Edmund Soldner was born on April 24, 1921, in Summerfield, Illinois, his father was a Mennonite preacher.

[3] Soldner served in General George Patton's Third Army during the Battle of the Bulge, and was awarded a Purple Heart.

[3] Soldner began to pursue a career in art upon returning to the United States after the Army, in 1946 he earned a degree from Bluffton College.

[7] Along with Voulkos, Soldner has been credited with creating the "California School" of ceramic arts by combining Western materials and technology with Japanese techniques and aesthetics.

In 1990, Scripps received an NEA Grant to research and organize an exhibition titled, "Paul Soldner: A Retrospective,'" that travelled throughout the United States.