W. Spencer Crooks (1917 - 2004) Watercolor on paper, signed lower right, measures 9 x 17 inches. An award-winning painter, teacher, tenor and member of the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame, Crooks was best known for his prints of Rhode Island landmarks. He began painting at the Pawtucket Boys Club, where the canvas of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer he painted which won first place at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933 hung for many years. He was a member of the Pawtucket Boys Club Alumni.An Army veteran of World War II, serving in Company B, 355th Army Engineers, he had won four first-place awards at the All Soldier Show judged by the Honorable Sir Alfred Munnings of the Royal Academy. A dramatic tenor, he sang for the American Forces Radio Network while stationed in England, and later sang with the New England Opera Theater. In 1949, he was a summer student of the Metropolitan Opera Company at Tanglewood under an RCA scholarship. He also studied at the Longy School of Music.