David Merrill papers, 1962-1998

David Wilkinson Merrill was born on 2 February 1942 in Salt Lake City, Utah. He was the only child of Harold Calderwood (Hal) and LaNae Wilkinson Merrill. He grew up in Salt Lake City and Bountiful, Utah and lived one year in Twin Falls, Idaho where he graduated from High School. He attended the University of Utah for two years before transferring to The Art Center School in Los Angeles where he graduated in 1965 with a double major in advertising design and illustration.

In 2001 he returned to Utah to leave the advertising business to start a career as a landscape painter. He studied for a year with Bonnie Posselli and participated in two co-op galleries in Park City, Utah. He was represented by Phillips Gallery in Salt Lake City and Juniper Sky Fine Arts Galley at Kayenta near St. George. In 2005 he opened David Merrill Gallery & Studio at 333 Main Street in Park City, Utah.

Merrill was married three times, in 1964 to Melinda Hunt in Los Angeles, in 1969 to Judith Retter in New York City, and in 1994 to Joanne Colvin in Westport, Connecticut. He had a son, Nicholas Merrill, with his second wife Judith Retter.

David Merrill died at the age of 66 on 24 December 2008 of lung cancer.