Zacha studied architecture at the
University of California, Berkeley, spent four years in the
United States Navy entertaining troops as a writer and actor during
World War II, and later made unsuccessful forays into the priesthood and drama. Returning to Berkeley to continue his architecture studies, he supported himself as a
cable car conductor, but dropped out after injuring his right hand in a fall. He moved to
Washington, D.C., where he studied art at the
Corcoran Gallery and learned to paint left-handed. The Zachas moved to Mendocino, then nearly a
ghost town, in 1957, and Zacha took a job as a high school teacher. bought the estate for $5500, Zacha also ran a combination laundry/art gallery and restored many other buildings in Mendocino. Zacha's series of 55
serigraphs depicting the
Tōkaidō road in Japan is collected in his book
Tokaido Journey (1985). ==References==