Bruce Wallace Ariss, Jr. (October 10, 1911 – September 11, 1994) was an American painter, muralist, writer, illustrator, editor as well as theater and set designer, amateur playwright and actor, and overall icon on the Monterey Peninsula, California. Early life Ariss was born in White Salmon, Washington, the son of Bruce Wallace Ariss, a construction contractor, and Anna (née Kerwin). Ariss attended Oakland Technical High School before enrolling in the University of California, Berkeley (B.A. 1934), where he was art editor of the campus publication Occident and editor of the campus humor magazine The Pelican as well as heavyweight boxer. At university he met Jean McLellan Fitch of Napa, California, who he described as "the prettiest girl on campus"; they married in 1934. "After graduation, Ariss operated heavy machinery for a gold mine and managed to accumulate $200 in savings". With this relatively large amount of money, Bruce, a painter, and his spouse Jean, a writer, decided to take an 18-month "honeymoon" on the Monterey Peninsula to pursue their creative efforts. Career To augment their savings, the Arisses took over the editorship of The Monterey Beacon, an experimental local literary magazine, and published John Steinbeck’s "The Snake" in 1934. William Saroyan passed through Monterey and sold a short story for one dollar to the Arisses for publication in the Beacon. Years later Bruce Ariss created artwork and served as editor for a local magazine What’s Doing on the Monterey Peninsula. After renting a small place in Pacific Grove, the Arisses bought several lots on Huckleberry Hill in Monterey and built a small studio-house. This evolved over the next fifty years, mostly with scrap and donated materials, into a three-story 20-plus room dwelling to meet their changing preferences and the growing needs of their five children. Ariss claimed that John Steinbeck referred to the house as a "Triumph over Architecture". It burned to the ground in 1990. "I got mad at the insurance company," he said. "I paid $80 a year for years, then they raised the rate to $800. I bought a lot of fire extinguishers and smoke alarms instead…I guess it didn’t work". At age 80, Ariss designed and rebuilt, with help from many friends, "Triumph over Architecture II," which is currently occupied by his daughter, Holly Shoats, and her spouse Al. Ariss was a friend and contemporary of John Steinbeck, the Nobel Prize-winning author, and Ed Ricketts. Bruce