Homer was born in Canada in 1919, but his family moved to Portland, Oregon, when he was a child. After high school, Homer enrolled at Linfield College in McMinnville where he competed on the basketball team and swimming team, though he said he was not the typical jock. He quickly learned that it was easier for him to get girls by making them laugh than by showing off his abilities in sporting events. The girl he eventually got was named Margaret Wiggum. Homer was a talented amateur artist. He drew pictures of common scenes and gave them comical captions. Homer began playing around with product advertisements which were comical, but more importantly, memorable.
In 1941, Homer earned a degree in English, and in the following year, he married Margaret. Homer may have envisioned settling down into family life and working as an ad man, but war was on the horizon. When the United States entered World War II, Homer became a B-17 bomber pilot. He and his B-17 crew dropped bombs on the Germans at Normandy on D-Day and later bombed Berlin. After the war, Homer began his career in advertising as an entry-level production assistant at the Botsford, Constantine, and Gardner ad agency. He climbed the ladder of success quicker than most because he had an unusual approach to advertising and clients loved his work. More importantly, consumers were receptive to his work.
In 1950, Homer’s piloting skills were needed again, and he flew transport missions during the Korean War. During the war, he became infatuated with the filmmaking process. He produced, wrote, shot, recorded the sound, edited, directed, and narrated documentaries. After the war, Homer became vice-president of the ad agency. Former Advertising Federation President Mick Scott referred to Homer as “an absolute creative genius.” Idaho potatoes became famous because of one of Homer’s ad campaigns. In 1958, Homer created his own highly successful advertising agency, but he still made time for his growing family. He and his wife Margaret had five children. To entertain his children, he often brought his work home. He gave them sketch pads and colored pencils and provided part of a story from which they created their own cartoons. Homer’s youngest son, Matt, eventually created a cartoon which has become the longest running American scripted primetime television series in history, and he named many of the characters after members of his own family including his father, Homer, his mother, Margaret went by the name Marge, and his little sisters, Lisa, and Maggie. Rather than using his own name, Matt chose an anagram of brat for the lead character, Bart. That is how Matt Groening, the son of an ad man, created The Simpsons. When Matt and his wife, Deborah, had a son of their own they named him not Bart, but Homer.
Sources:
1. Ash Horn, “Home Groening: The Vanguard Cartoonist, Filmmaker and Ad Man Who Did It All,” Portland Design History, accessed May 24, 2026, https://www.
2. “Homer Groening,” Lambiek Comiclopedia, Accessed May 24, 2026, https://www.lambiek.net/
3. “Homer Groening, Cartoonist’s Father, ‘Simpsons’ Inspiration,” The Seattle Times, March 19, 1996, Accessed May 24, 2026, https://archive.seattletimes.