Man who posed for painter makes stop at Delaware police museum
Richard Clemens signs a poster-sized print of his Saturday Evening Post cover as Delaware state policemen Sgt. Walter Newton (from left), Col. Robert Coupe and Lt. Col. James Paige look on. Clemens still keeps in touch with the boy, now a man, who posed as the runaway in the painting.
By J.L. MILLER • The News Journal • September 12, 2009
DOVER — You probably wouldn’t recognize Richard J. Clemens’ face, but if he turns his back to you — as he did to a group of state troopers Friday — you just might.
Clemens, a retired Massachusetts state trooper, appears in Norman Rockwell’s 1958 Saturday Evening Post cover illustration of a police officer sitting on a diner stool alongside a young runaway boy.
“The Runaway” has become almost an icon in the law-enforcement community, a status the unassuming Clemens would never claim for himself.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20090912/NEWS01/909120369/Rockwell-cover-makes-trooper-an-icon
