Background
Fletcher was born and raised in Burlington, Iowa, the son of Maude and William Fletcher.
Fletcher was born and raised in Burlington, Iowa, the son of Maude and William Fletcher.
He enlisted at Camp Dodge, Iowa and attended Officer Candidate School in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
Fletcher produced the strip with Chester Gould for 16 years, then after Chester Gould"s retirement in 1977 Fletcher produced the comic strip an additional 6 years until his death on March 16, 1983. In 1934, his family moved to Galesburg, Illinois, and the following year he became art director for the Rudy A. Moritz Advertising Agency in Davenport, Iowa. In 1942, Fletcher"s career was interrupted by A year later, he was commissioned in the Corporation of Engineers and assigned as a 1st Lieutenant South-1 Adjutant to the 308th Engineer Combat Battalion Headquarters with the 83rd Infantry Division.
Fletcher went through five European military campaigns from Doctorate-Day +10 at Omaha Beach, France, the hedgerows of Normandy, through France to Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and fought in the Battle of the Bulge.
The Russian Army eventually raided the bunker two weeks later. At the end of the war, Fletcher served as Commanding Officer of the Sonndorf Prisoner of War Camp in Germany, and Contracting Officer to build camps for displaced persons and prisoners of war.
Fletcher also spent time during the war taking photographs with his 35mm Leica camera to document his journey through Europe. He was separated from the service as a Captain on February 27, 1946.
After dating for 3 months, the two were married on January 4, 1946.
Soon after, he was offered a job at the Chicago Tribune in the advertising art department. In 1961 an opportunity arose from Chester Gould, creator of Gould offered Fletcher a position as assistant artist, which was previously held by Dick Locher. When Gould retired in 1977, Fletcher took over full art production of the strip.
He worked with writer, Max Collins.
Fletcher continued to draw until his death on March 16, 1983.