Born in 1921 in Summerfield, Illinois, Paul Soldner was an influential ceramic artist. As a major force in the evolution of contemporary ceramic art, it’s perhaps an irony of fate that Soldner, known for developing “American raku” and low temperature salt firing, never planned to be a potter. He was a pre-med student when he was drafted in World War II; after the war, Soldner turned to painting and received a BFA from Bluffton College in Ohio, and a MA in art education from the University of Colorado. At 33, he went to the Los Angeles County Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design) to become Peter Voulkos’ first graduate student. For nearly 40 years Soldner taught at Scripps College and Claremont Graduate School in California. He divided his time between California and Colorado, the home of Anderson Ranch Arts Center, which he helped establish. His contributions to the ceramics world were numerous; besides building the Scripps Ceramics Annual invitational exhibition, he had almost 200 solo shows and gave hundreds of lectures and demonstrations. Paul Soldner received the American Craft Council’s Gold Medal in 2008. He died in 2011.