Ray Prohaska, a painter and illustrator, was born in Yugoslavia in 1901. In 1909 at the age of eight, Prohaska came to the US with his family and settled in San Francisco. A graduate of the California School of Fine Arts, he had a studio on Sutter Street in San Francisco for a few years as a young man, and from 1921 until 1929 he owned and ran an art service in Chicago, Illinois. He then moved to NYC where he embarked upon a successful career as an illustrator for magazine fiction in major publications including Woman's Home Companion, The Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, and McCall’s. It was also there, in the 30s, that he became a member of the Society of Illustrators, and the clubs Artists and Writers, and The Dutch Treat Club. He taught at the Art Students League of New York City in 1961 and then was artist-in-residence at Washington and Lee University.