Dorothy Dehn

Dorothy’s Story

While she was in junior high school, Dorothy Charlotte Hurt saw the italic handwriting of her teacher, a student of Lloyd Reynolds, and knew she would go to Reed College to study with him. She credited Reynolds as an influence not only in her work as a calligrapher but also in her choice to study philosophy. Dorothy received a B.A. from Reed in philosophy and went on to teach graphic and letter design at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, Mt. Hood Community College, Portland State University, and Portland Community College. She operated her business, Dehn Graphics, with her husband and partner, Peter R. Dehn. 

Dorothy served on the PSC board for several years and was awarded Honorary Lifetime Membership in 1999. Pieces of her work can be found in the Lloyd J. Reynolds Memorial Collection at the Portland Art Museum, the Richard Harrison Collection of Calligraphy and Lettering at the San Francisco Public Library, and at the Regis University Library in Denver, Colorado.

Dorothy said the following at the Reed Calligraphy Group Interview in 1982:

“All the way from school, I mean I can remember being a pain in the . . . as far as the teachers were concerned. Opening my mouth and asking questions that they did not appreciate, that they didn’t have an answer for, therefore they really didn’t want me to ask. Lloyd never objected to those. He always encouraged me. He frequently didn’t have the answer either, but he would give me an idea of what to read and where to go to find it and how to research it on my own. And he would also go and look himself, too.” 

“I remember one time [Lloyd] told me I should stand that–whatever letter it was–in the corner. He had a very strange way of telling you that you had created an abomination of a letter: I should go stand that letter in the corner.”