About Sam McClain
Sam McClain was born in San Angelo, Texas. He came to Alaska in the late 1940s and worked as an architect for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District Office, in Anchorage from 1949 until his retirement in 1979. He married Christine Ferrari Reeder in Anchorage in 1950. McClain was an artist, specializing in pen and ink drawing and watercolors. He studied under watercolor artists Rex Brandt and Robert E. Wood in California in the late 1960s. He was best known for his drawings and watercolors of Russian Orthodox churches and other historical buildings in Alaska. McClain contributed drawings and designed the cover for Fern Wallace's book, The Flame of the Candle: a pictorial history of Russian Orthodox Churches in Alaska, which was published in 1974. He also taught watercolor art classes, served on the advisory board of the Sand Lake Community School Board, and performed volunteer work for the Anchorage School District and other local organizations. Sam McClain died in Anchorage in 1994.
Sam McClain self portrait
