On this day, February 24, 1921, sci fi illustrator Richard M. Powers was born in Chicago, Illinois. He studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, at the University of Illinois in Chicago, and at the University of Kentucky while in basic training for the U. S. Army. After service during WWII, Powers began producing illustration for science fiction, mysteries, and westerns. His first book cover commission was for Asimov’s Pebble in the Sky (1950).