About This Stamp
The U.S. Postal Service® honors the Reverend Father Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., longtime president of the University of Notre Dame and a dedicated champion of civil rights and other social issues. Father Hesburgh was considered one of the most important educational, religious, and civic leaders of the 20th century.
The stamp art features an oil-on-panel painting of Father Theodore Hesburgh standing on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. The portrait is based on a 1980 photograph.
On June 24, 1943, Theodore Hesburgh was ordained into the priesthood and two years later was appointed religion instructor and chaplain to World War II veterans at Notre Dame. In 1952, he became Notre Dame’s 15th president, a position he held for 35 years, the longest presidential term in the university’s history.
A champion of causes ranging from immigration reform to civil rights, Father Hesburgh worked with many organizations in roles that reflected his personal beliefs, including the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, from 1957 to 1972; the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; the National Science Board; the Overseas Development Council; and the Select Committee on Immigration and Refugee Policy, among others. An advocate for finding peaceful uses of atomic energy, he was the Vatican’s representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency from 1956 to 1970.
In 1987, Father Hesburgh retired as Notre Dame’s president and continued to devote his time to public service work.
Father Hesburgh was the recipient of many honors, including two of the nation's highest civilian awards: the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964 for his contributions to civil rights, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2000. The library at Notre Dame is named for Father Hesburgh, and he received more than 150 honorary degrees from colleges and universities around the world, believed to be the most ever awarded to one individual.
Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp with original art by Tim O’Brien.
The Father Theodore Hesburgh stamp was issued as a Forever® stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Designer, and Typographer
Ethel Kessler
Ethel Kessler is an award-winning designer and art director who has worked with corporations, museums, public and private institutions, professional service organizations, and now, the United States Postal Service.
After earning a B.F.A. in visual communications from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Kessler worked as a graphic designer and project manager for the exhibits division of the United States Information Agency. Her work was distributed internationally on subjects such as Immigration, Entrepreneurship, Renovation of American Cities, and the Bicentennial of 1976. She was also responsible for exhibits in Morocco, Botswana, and El Salvador.
In 1981, she established Kessler Design, Inc., for which she is creative director and designer. Clients have included the Clinton Government reorganization, the Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic Television, the National Park Service, and the American Institute of Architects.
She has been an art director for the U.S. Postal Service’s stamp development program for more than 25 years. As an art director for USPS, Kessler has been responsible for creating more than 500 stamp designs, including the Breast Cancer Research stamp illustrated by Whitney Sherman. Issued in 1998, the stamp is still on sale and has raised more $98 million for breast cancer research. Other Kessler projects include the popular and highly regarded Nature of America 120 stamp series, a collaboration with nationally acclaimed nature illustrator John Dawson, the 12-year Lunar New Year series with Kam Mak, the American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes 10 stamps issued in 2003, a 2016 pane of stamps celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, and the 2023 stamp honoring Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And many, many others.
Stamp Artist
Tim O'Brien
A native of New Haven, Connecticut, Tim O’Brien earned a bachelor of fine arts degree from Paier College of Art in Hamden, Connecticut, in 1987. He then embarked on a career in illustration and, today, creates intricately detailed illustrations and portraits from his Brooklyn, New York, studio.
O’Brien’s art has appeared numerous times on the cover of TIME and has been featured in Esquire, GQ, Der Spiegel, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, and Playboy. Other clients include advertising agencies and book publishers, such as HarperCollins, Penguin, Scholastic, and Simon & Schuster.
The 2009 winner of the prestigious Hamilton King Award from the Society of Illustrators, which O’Brien currently serves as president, his work has also been recognized by Communication Arts, Graphis, Print, American Illustration, and the Society of Publication Designers. In 2003, O’Brien, an adjunct professor at Pratt Institute, received an honorary doctorate from Lyme Academy of Fine Art.
Numerous speaking engagements include appearances at the United Nations, the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Society of Illustrators, Syracuse University, the School of Visual Arts, Pratt Institute, Rhode Island School of Design, California College of the Arts, Western Connecticut State University, and the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
O’Brien, a former boxer whose new passion is running marathons, lives in the historic Flatbush section of Brooklyn with his wife, Elizabeth Parisi, and son.
The 2021 August Wilson stamp is O’Brien’s latest project for the Postal Service. Other stamps include Moss Hart (2004), Hattie McDaniel (2006), Judy Garland (2006), Danny Thomas (2012), Shirley Temple (2016), and Father Theodore Hesburgh (2017).