Jason Seley was born in 1919 in Newark, NJ. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Cornell in 1940. He studied in New York and Paris and taught at Hofstra University, New York University, the Ontario College of Art, Dartmouth College, and the Berliner Kunstlerprogram in Berlin. In 1968, he became a professor of sculpture at Cornell, and chaired the Department of Art for the next five years. In 1980, he became dean of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell, a position he held until his death in 1983. An internationally acclaimed sculptor, Seley was best known for his work with welded chromium-plated steel and, in particular, automobile bumpers. Numerous public and private collections included his work, and he had many one-man and group exhibitions.