Article: Smokey Bear Caught On Like Wildfire; Icon's Popularity Kept Artist Busy During His Decades at the U.S. Forest Service

The guardian of Smokey Bear leans a little closer to hear the question, his Smokey Bear string tie just a bit off center.

Sitting in his modest North Arlington home, with a life-size stuffed Smokey staring in from the sun porch, 85-year-old artist Rudolph Wendelin explains that his hearing isn't what it once was and that his eyes are going, too. But the fire still glows in them when he speaks of Smokey.

"I was just proud of doing all this. That's why I saved so much," said Wendelin, who for decades labored over Smokey in the bureaucratic anonymity of the U.S. Forest Service. Over the years, he collected a prodigious amount of artwork and memorabilia, which he wants to see preserved.

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