Nicodemus David Hufford III (1915-1986), the son of a minstrel and vaudeville comedian, was born in Columbus, Ohio. In the 1930s he studied his chosen profession at the Chicago Art Institute, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, and the Chicago Professional School and American Academy, and in the early 1940s he served an apprenticeship under two top illustrators, Haddon Sundblom and Harry Anderson. Hufford has painted portraits of a number of leading American families, including the Rockefellers, du Ponts, and Dukes, and his work hangs in many homes in the United States and abroad. He also painted portraits of Generals Dwight David Eisenhower and Peyton Conway March which are displayed in the Pentagon's Hall of Generals.