Printmaker and illustrator Bertram Johnck was born in Oregon on December 10, 1912. He moved to the Oakland area in the 1930s, graduating from Piedmont High in 1931. He trained in printmaking but shifted toward the advertising business. Johnck created a number of graphic block prints in the 1940s and worked for Grabhorn Press in San Francisco. From 1930 to 1967 he was a member of the Roxburghe Club, a literary club that also made and collected bookplates, and in 1946 contributed a commemorative work for the club members. In 1962 he and his wife co-authored a book titled Bounty Land: the Story of Summer Home Park. He died in Menlo Park, California in September of 1986.