Topic: Garry Trudeau

Garretson Beekman "Garry" Trudeau (born July 21, 1948) is an American cartoonist, best known for the Doonesbury comic strip.

Trudeau was born in New York City, the son of Jean Douglas (née Moore) and Francis Berger Trudeau. He is the great-grandson of Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau, who created the world-famous Adirondack Cottage Sanitorium for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis at Saranac Lake, New York State. Edward was succeeded by his son Francis and grandson Francis Jr. The latter founded the Trudeau Institute at Saranac Lake, with which his son Garry retains a connection.

Raised in Saranac Lake, Garry Trudeau attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. He enrolled in Yale University in 1966 and later became a member of Scroll and Key. Trudeau was confident that his major would end up being theatre, but he discovered a greater interest in art design. A drawing by Trudeau of famous Yale quarterback Brian Dowling for the Yale Daily News led to the creation of a comic strip for the paper, Bull Tales, the progenitor of Doonesbury. As a Yale undergrad, Trudeau was also the Editor-in-Chief of The Yale Record, the nation's oldest college humor magazine. Trudeau continued his studies with postgraduate work at the Yale School of Art, earning his M.F.A. in graphic design in 1973.