Harold Olov Wang was born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin on December 7, 1911 to Scandinavian immigrants, the second of 5 children and the only son. Growing up with 4 sisters during the eve of The Depression stimulated Harold’s young mind and imagination. He graduated from high school in the spring of 1930, and decided to broaden his horizons with a 10-month hitch-hiking and train-hopping trip throughout the East, West, and South that spawned dozens of articles of his fascinating adventures, which were published in the Rhinelander Daily News. This launched a passion for writing and painting which remained and grew throughout Harold’s life.

In the spring of 1942, Harold was drafted into the U.S. Army when World War II broke out. After serving four years, one of which was in occupied Germany, he was discharged, and on March 21, 1946 married a German-born citizen, Gisela von Koschembahr, whom he met and fell in love with early in his military career when she came to work for him while serving as a WAC in the U.S. Air Force. They ultimately went to work for the U.S. Government, started a family, and settled in Virginia, and later Maryland.

During the time that Harold was employed by several government agencies in Washington, DC, he always continued and pursued his passion for writing and art. He became an historian on Abraham Lincoln, and after his retirement in the early 1970’s, he enjoyed the freedom of being able to do extensive traveling and research for his various plays, short stories, collection of poems, and novels including “The Pantages – A Saga”.

In August, 1989, Harold and Gisela relocated to Palmdale, California. Harold continued to write and paint, but sadly, Gisela passed away on January 1, 1999 at age 84. In June of 2000, mostly to ease his grief and longing, Harold resumed his painting, and found a renewed sense of creativity and vitality. He developed a new artistic technique he called Abstract Impressionism which is reflected in the paintings from his “New Dimensions” collection. This increased the number of his completed works to over 400.

In the decade that followed, Harold was invited to meet with television producer/writer and novelist Stephen J. Cannell to provide valuable information for his “Riding the Snake” novel. He also enjoyed creative success in California with several solo exhibits of his incredible canvases and poems in Palmdale, Laguna Beach, Burbank, and Valencia as well as in a number of selected artists’ group exhibitions in Burbank, Newhall, and Valencia. He was an honorary member of the Pasadena Artists’ Association and the Santa Clarita Artists’ Association.

Photo by Jonathan Pobre, The Signal