About Lester Yocum

Lester Yocum
Lester Yocum

I create traditional and electronic theaters of the mind, written, spoken and seen.

Now retired, I worked for decades in the traditional and computerized web, gallery, print, training and presentation markets for local firms, multinational corporations and federal government agencies. I continue to create national and international award-winning projects, including website consulting, design, creation, and maintenance; developing dynamic content management systems; traditional and digital illustration; gallery work; graphic design; presentation production; and writing. My focus is on delivering products that stand out in the marketplace, attract business, represent the client positively, are attractive to the user, and close sales.

My picture book, Remembering the Child, won rave reviews from New York Times and Amazon best seller James Gurney. My novels include the Welltower young adult scifi thrillers “First Run”, “Second Run”, “Final Run”, and “Selda’s Run”.

I continue to teach and lecture before live and televised audiences on communication, writing, the visual arts, and human empowerment and motivation.

Ultimately, my goal is to help bring people to Christ.

History

I was born in Tacoma, Washington in 1954. My family bought a ranch at the foot of Mount Rainier then sold it and operated a combined appliance repair business called Major Appliances and a mom-and-pop store called Yocum’s Grocery in Graham, Washington. In 1970 we moved to Ketchikan, Alaska. A year later we moved to Eugene, Oregon to treat my mother’s cancer.

I graduated from North Eugene High School in 1973, the year my mother died. I spent the following summer touring Europe with my sister and the school’s band and choir, entering Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah that fall. The next year I transferred to Ricks College, now BYU-Idaho, in Rexburg, Idaho studying art and music, graduating with honors two years later.

From December 1976 to December 1978 I served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Taiwan Taipei mission, learning Mandarin Chinese. Upon my return I drifted between jobs and attempts at schooling at BYU and Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

Eventually, unable to find a career or a way to make money with my art and writing, I joined the United States Air Force in 1981, achieving the rank of sergeant by the time I ended my enlistment in 1987.

During my military service I met Tamara Eileen Vanderwall, a Florida resident who had spent most of her life in upstate New York. A year later we married, just before deploying to Osan Air Base in Korea. In 1984 the Air Force moved us to Fort Meade, Maryland, where Tammy gave birth to three children: Lindsay, Ben, and Isaac. We lived in that area until our divorce in 2018, after nearly 35 years of marriage. Tammy moved to Utah so she could live near our boys, who married and settled there after graduating from BYU and UVU and getting great jobs. My daughter later joined her. In 2021 I married the former Leslie Gail Anderson. She and I now live in Utah.

For more information on my professional life, see my resume. Please contact me with any questions. More photos of Lester Yocum are available here.

Artist’s Statement
Gallery Shows and Competitions