Jan Marfyak

Jan Marfyak (son) has been a longtime Board Member of the National New Deal Preservation Association (NNDPA) and he also is a Board Member of the New Mexico Chapter of NNDPA. He has served as Treasurer of both our National Association and our NM Chapter.

His dad was an immigrant. In the United States. he came from a little town in eastern Czechoslovakia. He came to the U.S. with his mother and two sisters. They entered the U.S. through Ellis Island. My father had a sister who was handicapped, and they managed to get her through. And they went to New Britain, Connecticut, where my Grandfather was working at a foundry. And my dad grew up in basically a Slovak community in New Britain. At the time. Worked in the. My dad went to New Britain high school. But his grade school was limited to parochial schools. Irish parochial schools. And let's just say we had enough. He went to school and graduated from 8th grade as John Murphy. It was as close as sisters could get to Jan Marfyak. He started at a small. art school in Britton, Connecticut. And then moved to New York City and went to the Art Student League. Which was at that time probably the premier painting school in the United States. Ben Chong. Jackson Pollock, several other noted artists. Either taught there or. Graduated from the classrooms. He went on his own, did some banking work, and when the depression hit, he. Took a job. At the time. And while he went to the arts, certainly continued that. Someone could do that. He joined the WPA. And was paid the minimal salaries that were available at the time. And we were there for about three years in New York City. Greenwich Village. And then he was asked to come to New Mexico. On loan from New York. And he came to New Mexico during the depression, we've rented a house there in Roswell New Mexico.