Background
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Geller was born in Brooklyn on April 17, 1924 to Olga and Joseph Geller, an artist and sign painter who had emigrated from Hungary in 1905. Architectural historian Alastair Gordon reported that as a sign painter Joseph Geller designed the logo for Boar's Head Provision Company, still in use today.
Geller studied drawing with his father, and the attended art classes at the Brooklyn Museum. A 1938 painted self-portrait won him a scholarship to the New York High School of Art and Music (1939), and he subsequently studied architecture at Cooper Union, where he took drawing class with Robert Gwathmey, father of architect Charles Gwathmey. Geller later worked as a naval architect for the United States Maritime Commission designing tanker hulls and interiors (1939–42).
During World War II, Geller served in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1942–45) and was inadvertently exposed to a toxic chemical agent, suffering medical consequences for the remainder of his life. Geller married Shirley Morris (a painter) in 1944. The couple lived in Northport, New York and together had a son, Gregg Geller (formerly catalog executive at RCA, CBS and Warner Bros.) and a daughter, Jamie Geller Dutra (formerly interior designer at Loewy/Snaith).
Prior to his death in December 2011 in Syracuse, Geller lived in Spencer, New York.
Read more about this topic: Andrew Geller
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