Gary Tillery

Life and career

Tillery was born in Phoenix, Arizona on August 6, 1947. After interrupting his education for military service in Saigon during the Vietnam War, he earned a bachelor's degree in Latin American Studies at Arizona State University and a master's degree in International Management from Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Tillery co-founded The Townsend Agency, Ltd., in the Chicago area in 1979, and worked as an advertising executive for seventeen years. Throughout his time in the business world he felt drawn to create literature and art. One of his short stories, “Dragon with a Broken Wing,” was selected by Ray Bradbury to receive first prize in a contest honoring the famous native of Waukegan, Illinois. In 1996, Tillery resigned his position as chairman of The Townsend Agency to pursue his twin interests of writing and sculpture.

As a writer, his best-known work is The Cynical Idealist: A Spiritual Biography of John Lennon. The book was the first to examine John Lennon as a man of ideas, exploring his impact on the world as a consequence of his self-generated humanist philosophy and his spiritual growth. The book was selected as the official book of the 2010 John Lennon Tribute in New York City, and subsequently translated into German, French, Portuguese, and Danish. A follow-up book, Working Class Mystic: A Spiritual Biography of George Harrison, was published by Quest Books in 2011. A third book in the series, The Seeker King: A Spiritual Biography of Elvis Presley, came in 2013, and was selected as a featured book by the Patheos Book Club. Tillery is also the author of three comedic detective novels, a short story collection, and three volumes of poetry.

In 2000, Tillery’s sculpture They Also Serve was accepted by the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum for its permanent collection, and as a result of his connection with the museum he was selected to create the centerpiece sculpture in the Chicago Vietnam Veterans Memorial at Wabash Plaza, dedicated in 2005. In 2004 he created the bust of Steve Allen for the Steve Allen Theater in Hollywood. Affiliated with the Fine Art Studio of Rotblatt Amrany from its founding in 1992, Tillery has joined the studio team to create several prominent outdoor sculptures, including Luis Aparicio at U.S. Cellular Field, T. Denny Sanford at the Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Ray Kroc and Ronald McDonald in downtown Chicago. He was also co-sculptor, with Omri Amrany, on the statue of Pat Tillman for the Arizona Cardinals football team.

Notable Works

(Writer)

(Artist)