{"id":7509,"date":"2011-10-06T17:31:01","date_gmt":"2011-10-06T17:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=7509"},"modified":"2025-11-16T08:46:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T15:46:53","slug":"in-memoriam-pat-denner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/in-memoriam-pat-denner\/","title":{"rendered":"In Memoriam: Pat Denner"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pat Denner in front of Denner and Associates on Broadway with his Cadillac, photo by Tom Thompson<\/p><\/div>\n

On September 25th, 2011 Utah artist and illustrator Pat Denner passed away at the age of 87. Denner was a fixture along Salt Lake’s Broadway district, where he was immediately recognizable in his fedora hat and yellow cadillac.<\/p>\n

Denner’s is not a household name, but you’ve seen his work, whether south in Vegas, west in Wendover, or at your local KFC. He created Vegas Vic for the Young Electric Sign Company in 1951 and followed that with Wendover Will for the Stateline Casino in in 1952. That same year he designed the sit-down menus for Harman Restaurants, home of the KFC franchise, and also created the caricature of Col. Harland Sanders that has traveled around the world. For decades after he handled prestigious accounts from the offices of Denner & Associates at 171 East Broadway.<\/p>\n

When he retired Denner turned the storefront property into a studio that became filled from floor to ceiling with his paintings, collected memoriabilia and the “sayings” he liked to post on the wall. “He was a great technical artist,” says Tom Thompson, who used to own Saans Gallery on Broadway. “He could do anything. He was also a fine fellow and one hell of a good neighbor back when we were on Broadway.”<\/p>\n