Hugh Alvin Ricks

Age: 66

Summary: painter and artist whose designs for everything from early Jazzfest posters to Zatarain's spice labels from the White Pages cover dedicated to the Aquarium of the Americas to the logos of the Hilton Hotel were part of the New Orleans artistic landscape for decades, who applied his customary sense of dedication to his commercial art career while working tirelessly on a steady stream of high-profile commissions from the 1960's onward, including The Crescent City Classic poster, the Albuquerque Balloon Festival poster, the Boston Marathon poster, but who won so many design and art awards over the years that he eventually stopped entering such competitions, and who had recently completed an 8-foot portrait commission for Christian Brothers Academy.

Cause of Death: Complications from gall bladder surgery during evacuation in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

Born: January 20, 1939

Died: September 16, 2005

Location: Fort Worth, Texas