Marinette native John Hubley was born on May 21, 1914, and was inspired to become an artist by his mother and grandfather, both painters. He joined Disney in 1936 to paint layouts but disliked the studio’s ultra-realistic style of animation and quit during a 1941 strike. After World War II, he joined United Productions of America, a studio founded by artists he had served with in the Air Force’s First Motion Picture Unit. By 1948, the studio had secured a distribution deal with Columbia Pictures to produce theatrical short films, and Hubley served as its vice president, creative head, and art director while pushing its distinctive visual aesthetic. By combining modernist design principles with stylized character animation, he helped make the studio one of the leading animation studios of the 1950s, and he also co-created its flagship character, Mr. Magoo. In 1952, he was fired and blacklisted from Hollywood for refusing to cooperate with the House Committee on Un-American Activities. He then opened Storyboard, Inc., later Hubley Studio, with his wife, Faith, and the couple continued to innovate with films that combined jazz music, expressionist visuals, and improvised dialogue to address political, societal, and moral issues in ways previously unseen in animation. Their film Moonbird in 1959 became the first independent film to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, and the Hubleys won two more awards in the category, with seven nominations in all, before John’s death in 1977.