Artist created bulldog logo used by Scott High School

8/1/2001

Harold D. Quinn, of Toledo, a retired commercial artist who designed logos for area companies and institutions, died Sunday in St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center. He was 74.

Mr. Quinn had been in a coma since July 14, family members said. He was hurt when his wheelchair flipped over on the porch of his home in the 6100 block of North Detroit Avenue, and he hit his head, his daughter, Kathy Kirby, said.

Mr. Quinn worked at the former Ace Sign Co. for 20 years. He was vice president and co-owner of the former Creative Arts and Signs, which specialized in signs, art, and truck lettering. He owned his own business - Dave Quinn and Associates - during the 1970s.

Mr. Quinn did lettering and drawings on signs for the Sunoco Refinery on Woodville Road, the former Community Traction Co., the former Hillcrest Hotel, Big Boy Family Restaurants, and White Tower Restaurant. He retired the 1980s, his brother, Lawrence Quinn, who is a draftsman, said.

Harold Quinn was a contributor to the Bronze Raven, an African-American oriented newspaper that closed in 1974. He drew a detective-cartoon strip called “Swing Papa” for the publication.

Lawrence Quinn said his brother designed the bulldog logo for Scott High School in the late 1960s and the former logo that was on the scoreboard at Glass Bowl Stadium at the University of Toledo.

The fourth of 10 children, Mr. Quinn spent his childhood in East Toledo. He attended Waite High School for three years and finished his senior year at Scott High School after his family moved to Norwood Avenue. He graduated from Scott in 1944.

Mr. Quinn played defense and offense on his high school football teams, earning an athletic scholarship to Wilberforce University. He attended the African-American college briefly and then was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was a gunner on a bomber in the Pacific Theater.

After the war, he returned to Toledo and attended the former Laingor Commercial Art Studio & School in downtown Toledo, graduating in the late 1940s.

Surviving are his daughters, Karen Reynolds and Kathy Kirby; sons, Anthony and Harold, Jr.; sisters, Homer Lee Hamer, Velma Shoecraft, Lorean Whitaker, and Janet Wyatt; brothers, Robert and Lawrence; six grandchildren, and one great-grandson.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Dale Funeral Home, where visitation will be after 3 p.m. Friday, followed by wake services at 6 p.m.