Utah mourns the passing of one of its artist statesmen, Ted Wassmer (1910-2006). He died last week in a Salt Lake rest home; he was 96.

But instead of reprinting mounds of available Wassmer biographical information — the artist's life and career are discussed and analyzed on Web sites and multiple local publications — perhaps it would be more fitting to tell why he was so admired.

During a 1987 interview with Wassmer, I came away with three observations: first, he was very much in love with, and missed, his late wife and artist, Judy Farnsworth Lund; second, he was full of humorous stories, some quite saucy; and third, Wassmer was prolific and gave away much of his art to friends and associates.

On a quarterly basis — sometimes more often — Wassmer would send out copies of a letter to friends, wherein he mentioned his art, his deceased wife, his age and a recurring list of the things he'd accomplished throughout his life. Each letter, depending on the year sent, had "94 and still painting," "95 and still painting" or "96 and still painting" scribbled at the bottom.

Like many others, I also received original art from Wassmer, as a gift; I have over a dozen watercolors, and I've held on to each one. I don't imagine they'll be worth much monetarily, as he tended to saturate the market with his work. But I don't care; I like them.

For me, Wassmer's life can be summed up with an anecdote — a story form with which the artist was very familiar: As a starving young artist, barely making ends meet, he'd heard that the artist Minerva Teichert was struggling financially up in Wyoming. After some of his paintings sold at one of Alice Merrill Horne's galleries, Wassmer asked Horne to send some of the money he'd received to Teichert because "she needed it."

Wassmer was genuinely a giving guy — something that has become increasingly rare today.

I feel fortunate our paths crossed.

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E-mail: gag@desnews.com