By: E&P Staff Editorial cartoonist Robert Drebelbis has died at the age of 94, according to a Nov. 16 e-mail from his daughter posted Friday on the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists' Web site.
Drebelbis, who was more commonly known as ?Dreb,? was the Secretary Treasurer of the organization from 1981 to 1984, and he had been a member of for years. He was a cartoonist for the Harrison (Ark.) Daily Times during the 1970s and 1980s.
?His years with you as your Secretary Treasurer were always precious to him,? daughter Candi Garrison wrote in the e-mail. ?He drew cartoons at his home in the Air Force Village until he went into the hospital just last week. Always a cartoonist to the end.?
Dreb began cartooning after working as a variety store merchant for the SS Kresge Co. and as a pilot serving in both WWII and the Korean War. He retired from the Air Force in 1973 as a colonel.
The AAEC also recounts in the post an encounter between Drebelbis and fellow cartoonist Doug Marlette, where Dreb literally threw Marlette out of the 1982 AAEC convention in San Francisco for being behind on his dues and attempting to charge his room to the AAEC.
?When he was confronted by [Dreb], who attempted to advise him of his error, Marlette brushed him off,? remembered R.C. Harvey on the AAEC?s Web site. ?The gentleman in question took umbrage at this and grabbed Marlette by the collar and marched him away; [Marlette] never came back.?
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