Edward R. Grove joined the Bureau of Engraving, Washington DC in 1936. For the next eleven years he would work there as an engraver. Nine of his steel engravings appeared on U.S. postal issues. He designed the 1954 U.S. Air 4-cent stamp which was later reissued as a 5-cent stamp.
In 1947 he moved his family to Philadelphia where he worked as a portrait and vignette engraver for the Security Banknote Company. There he engraved almost 200 of the stamps of Cuba, Iran, Haiti, Panama, Bolivia, Paraguay and the Philippines, as well as vignetes for the currencies of Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia and Sudan.
In 1962 he returned to the Federal Service after Chief Mint Engraver Gilroy Roberts persuaded him to accept a vacant position as Mint engraver at the United States Mint in Philadelphia. His work there included the gold Congressional Medal presented to Bob Hope by President Kennedy, as well as the obverse of the West Virginia Centennial Medallion and the reverse of the 1964 Annual Assay Commission medal. Grove was very proud of the Hope medal since it was the last one to be presented by President Kennedy before his assassination.
He left the Mint on August 24 1965 to pursue a free-lance career. Four days later he was in Malta on behalf of the American chapter of the Knights of Malta. The Order of St. John of Jerusalem had commissioned him to do a set of four commemorative coins. Following the completion of the set Grove was made a chevalier of the order and and became its official sculptor-engraver.
In the medallic field he is probably best known for his work on Presidential Art Medals' World War II series of medals and two Society of Medalists medals. All of his medals exhibit a love of detail and beautiful lettering that hint strongly at his strong background in engraving.
Edward R Grove was married to Jean Donner Grove, a famous sculptor in her own right. The couple had two sons who inherited the artistic talent from their parents. Edward Grove died in 2002 in Chatsworth, FL.
