Vic Donahue was born in Croyden (Philadelphia), Pennsylvania on August 28, 1918. He was an artist and retoucher for the Omaha World Herald until WWII, where he served for four years as Combat Artist in the US Marine Corps. He spent time as a free lancer in New York, then moved to Vermont and became neighbor and friend to Norman Rockwell. He moved to Tuscon in 1962 and resided there for some time before finally returning to Omaha. His work mainly consists of watercolor illustrations and has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery in Washington D.C., and the Whitney Gallery and Joslyn Museum in Omaha. He was nominated twice for the Pulitzer for the best newspaper feature of the year, and is well known for his portrait of Pope John XXIII which has been reproduced on calendars, prayer cards, etc.