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#REDIRECT [[Flag of the United States#The 49- and 50-star unions]] |
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{{Infobox person |
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| name = Robert G. Heft |
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{{Rcat shell| |
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| image = Robert G. Heft by Gage Skidmore.jpg |
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{{R to related topic}} |
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| team = Cleveland Cavaliers |
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| caption = Robert G. Heft on December 5, 2009, seven days before his death. |
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1941|1|19}} |
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| birth_place = [[Saginaw, Michigan]], U.S. |
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| death_date = {{death date and age|2009|12|12|1941|1|19}} |
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| death_place = Saginaw, Michigan, U.S. |
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| death_cause = [[Heart attack]] |
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| religion = [[Lutheran]] |
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| known_for = Designer of the 50-star flag |
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}} |
}} |
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'''Robert G. "Bob" Heft''' (January 19, 1941 – December 12, 2009) was the designer of the current [[United States|American]] [[Flag of the United States|50-star flag]] as well as a designer of a submitted [[51st state|51-star flag]] proposal.<ref>Social Security Death Index</ref> He spent his childhood in [[Lancaster, Ohio|Lancaster]], [[Ohio]], where he created the American flag as a school project. |
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==Early life and education== |
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Heft was born in [[Saginaw, Michigan|Saginaw]], [[Michigan]], but was raised by his grandparents in Lancaster, Ohio, where he graduated from [[Lancaster High School (Ohio)|Lancaster High School]] in 1960. He subsequently studied at [[Ohio State University]] and [[Ohio University]].<ref name=Ohio>{{cite news |first=Jill |last=Sell |url=http://www.ohiomagazine.com/Main/Articles/Starring_Role_5134.aspx |title=Starring Role |publisher=''Ohio'' magazine |date=June 2015 }}</ref> |
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==Career== |
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Bob Heft taught at Sheridan Middle School for one year before moving to Northwest. After high school, Heft worked as a draftsman. He later taught history at Lancaster High and at [[Northwest State Community College]] in [[Archbold, Ohio|Archbold]]. He also served seven terms as mayor of [[Napoleon, Ohio]].<ref name=Ohio/> After retiring from teaching, he became a tourist and visited Europe, looking at flag designs. He was a longtime member of the Harvey Spaulding [[Toastmasters International|Toastmasters]] club in Saginaw, where he earned the nickname "Father Time" as he often filled the role of timer during meetings.{{citation needed|date=January 2014}} |
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===Flag design and adoption=== |
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Heft designed the 50-star American Flag in 1958 as a class project in his junior-year high-school history class, cutting up an old flag that belonged to his grandparents. His teacher, Stanley Pratt, gave him a [[Academic grading in the United States|B-]] for the project, but after discussion agreed that if the flag design was accepted by the [[United States Congress]], he would reconsider the grade. Heft enlisted the aid of his congressman, [[Walter Moeller]], who lived nearby, and the 50-star flag design that was the same as Heft's was chosen and adopted by presidential proclamation in 1959 after the admission of [[Alaska]] into the union and before that of [[Hawaii]]. According to Heft, Pratt honored their agreement and changed his grade to an [[Academic grading in the United States|A]] for the project.<ref name=Ohio/><ref name="fnrasmussentbs">{{cite news |url=http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/bs-md-backstory-1960-flag-20100702,0,1768337,full.story |last=Rasmussen |first=Frederick N. |title=A half-century ago, new 50-star American flag debuted in Baltimore |newspaper=The Baltimore Sun |date=July 3, 2010 }}</ref> Heft has also stated he had [[copyrighted]] designs for American flags with 51 to 60 stars.<ref>Hooker, Lisa R. (1988). [http://www.thewritewordsltd.com/writingsamples.php?nam=history "History Writing Samples"]. The Write Words, Ltd. Retrieved January 1, 2014.</ref> According to the footnoted article, "Starring Role," Bob talked about the time when he was invited to the National Mall on July 4, 1960, to see his flag fly over the U.S. Capitol. and “There he was, with a congressman on one side and President Eisenhower on the other." The ''Saginaw News'' for December 14, 2009 reported that since designing the flag, "Heft visited the White House 14 times under nine presidents and toured with Bob Hope." |
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When Alaska and Hawaii were being considered for statehood, more than 1,500 flag designs were spontaneously submitted to President [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]]. Although some of them were 49-star versions, the vast majority were 50-star proposals. At least three, and probably more, of these designs were identical to Heft's adopted design of the 50-star flag. Archived in the [[Eisenhower Presidential Center]] in [[Abilene, Kansas]], only a small fraction of the proposed designs have ever been published.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}} In September 1958 the Acting Secretary of the Army had already sent designs for the 49-star and 50-star flags to the Secretary of Defense that included the designs that would be ultimately selected by the president. At a cabinet meeting on November 19, 1958, President Eisenhower received a briefing on the history of the flag design process and several suggestions were made regarding designs for the new flags. |
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==Death== |
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Heft spent his last years in [[Saginaw, Michigan]], where many of his family lived. On December 12, 2009, he died from a heart attack at Covenant Medical Center at the age of 68.<ref name=AllMichigan>Barber, Barrie (December 17, 2009). [http://www.mlive.com/opinion/saginaw/index.ssf/2009/12/column_hats_off_to_saginaw_fla.html "Hats Off to Saginaw flag designer who gave America 50 stars"]. [[MLive]].</ref> |
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==References== |
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{{Reflist|refs=}} |
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==External links== |
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*[http://www.usflag.org/flagdesigner.html Designer of America's current flag], by Jim Sielicki ([[United Press International|UPI]]), ''The Exchange'', July–August 1988. |
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*[http://www.storycorps.org/listen/stories/bob-heft/ Story Corps oral history of the creation of the 50 star flag in the words of Robert G. Heft.] |
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*[https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=45408810| Robert G. Heft] at [https://www.findagrave.com/index.html| Find A Grave]. Heft's memorial stone reproduces his design for the 50-star flag. |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Heft, Robert G.}} |
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[[Category:Flag designers]] |
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[[Category:American artists]] |
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[[Category:Mayors of places in Ohio]] |
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[[Category:People from Saginaw, Michigan]] |
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[[Category:People from Fairfield County, Ohio]] |
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[[Category:People from Henry County, Ohio]] |
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[[Category:American Lutherans]] |
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[[Category:1941 births]] |
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[[Category:2009 deaths]] |
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[[Category:20th-century American politicians]] |
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