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Bob “Daddy-O” Wade ’61
to be Honored as
Tau Man of the Year 2017
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Iconic artist Bob “Daddy-O” Wade, who has earned international acclaim as a sculptor, painter, and photographer, will be awarded the Tau Chapter’s highest honor as Tau Man of the Year at the 2017 Tau Trustee Reunion on November 11.
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Daddy-O is best known for his oversized sculptures and hand-tinted vintage photographs transferred to large canvases. His larger-than-life works include the World’s Largest Cowboy Boots at North Star Mall in San Antonio and the 40-foot iguana sculpture, “Iggy,” once a rooftop landmark above New York’s Lone Star Cafe and now atop the roof of the Fort Worth Zoo.
Arriving as a pledge at the Kappa Sig House in 1961 in his customized 1951 Ford hot rod, with slicked-back hair and hipster style, an older Kappa Sig, Bob “Bullet” Pettit ’59, quickly nicknamed him what would become his lifelong moniker, “Daddy-O.”
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An art major, he soon became the in-house artist, creating elaborate works of art that were enjoyed by his Kappa Sig brothers and envied by other fraternities around campus. Now, 57 years later, he is currently working on a hand-tinted canvas with a “Kappa Sig Cowboy” theme that he, along with other Kappa Sig collectors of Daddy-O’s art, will soon present as a gift to his Tau brothers to be displayed in the new Kappa Sigma Residence Hall.
Daddy-O holds dear his lifelong friendships with his Kappa Sig brothers. “For a guy from isolated El Paso, it’s been an unbelievable journey of friendships and networking,” he said. “Pledging Kappa Sig was one of the best things I ever did.”
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Tau brother and close friend Monk White ’60 has enjoyed a lifetime of adventures with Daddy-O. “Wherever Daddy-O goes, the fun follows,” said White. One of those adventures was a trip to the Biennale de Paris to exhibit the “Texas Mobile Home Museum,” which had to be transported by ship from Houston to France, arriving at the exhibition site in Paris with just hours to spare. It proved to be worth the trouble. “The French were blown away,” White said.
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Daddy-O (center) with Johnny Langdon (Kappa Sig from TCU) and Monk White. Langdon is founder of the Lone Star Film Festival in Fort Worth and co-executive producer of the new documentary,
“Flight of the Iguana.”
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Daddy-O earned a BFA from UT Austin and an MA from the University of California at Berkeley. He has produced three books, with a fourth to be published soon, and has received three NEA grants. His work has been exhibited in Biennials in Paris, France; the Whitney Museum of Art in New York; and New Orleans, LA.
He lives in Austin with his wife, Lisa. Their daughter, Rachel, graduated from the College of Fine Arts at UT Austin and is also an artist. His oldest daughter, Christine, lives in San Diego and has three children.
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Save the Date
Celebration to Honor Bob “Daddy-O” Wade as
Tau Man of the Year
November 11, Tau Chapter Lodge
More information coming soon.
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