William Dole

William Dole was born in 1917 in Angola, Indiana to W. Earl Dole, a postmaster, and Edna Cowen Dole. Dole attended Olivet College where he studied English Literature and apprenticed under George Rickey, receiving a degree in Art History. He went on to receive his teaching credentials in art. In the 1940s, Dole enrolled in art classes at Mills College in Oakland, California were he met his wife, Kate Holcomb Dole in 1941. Soon after his marriage, Dole enlisted in the army where he worked teaching art to fellow cadets.

Following his time in the military, Dole worked for a short time as a commercial artist for Virgil A. Advertising before entering graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley in the summer of 1946. He spent two years as a lecturer in the Arts Department at Berkeley and began professionally exhibiting his work. In 1949, he took on a position as an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1955 he took sabbatical from the college in order to take his family to Florence, Italy for two years.

Following his return to the United States, Dole was appointed Department Chairman in 1958 and went on to become a full time professor in 1962 and Department Chair from 1971 to 1974. He continued working till his death in Santa Barbara in the year 1983.