Ron McTrusty was born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, on 8 June 1948. He studied at Kirkcaldy High School from 1960 to 1965, and Edinburgh College of Art from 1965 to 1970. From 1970 to 1977 McTrusty worked as magazine designer for Woman’s Own and Woman’s World, before becoming Features Artist on the Evening Standard from 1977 to 2003, where his name appeared in the background of a number of cartoons by JAK (Raymond Jackson). In addition he has worked freelance for Sunday Business, Sunday Telegraph and Men Only as well as The Engineer, Electronics Times, Pulse and a number of other Morgan Grampian/Miller Freeman publications.
McTrusty has also produced a number of children’s picture books for A.& C. Black. He uses pencil, Rotring Rapidoliner pens and (for colour work) Copic markers, and cites his main influence as being JAK.
In later life Ron lived in Staplehurst, Kent, before moving to Seaford, East Sussex in 2014. He enjoyed living by the sea, where he would take walks along the esplanade and was a keen bowls player and a singer with a local over sixties group.
Ron sadly passed away from lung cancer on 26thMay, 2021. He leaves behind his widow, Elizabeth, and his son who lives in Newcastle with his partner and two children.