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Carlton Stoiber is a nuclear law expert with a funny bone.

Safely buckled into his seat on Air Force Two as it hurtled toward Moscow,聽Carlton Stoiber聽(Phil鈥�64, Law鈥�69) pondered the agenda of the imminent Gore-Chernomyrdin Commission meeting. When his seatmate, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin, mentioned he would be talking with the Russians about the International Space Station, Stoiber did what came naturally: He sketched a cartoon.

It depicted the station as a bundle of minarets crowned by the trademark onion domes of Moscow鈥檚 St. Basil鈥檚 Cathedral 鈥� a cheeky nod to the Russians鈥� push for greater control over the station.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 remember showing it to the Russians,鈥� jokes Stoiber, a nuclear law expert with the U.S. State Department at the time of the 1995 Moscow trip.

Stoiber did show the cartoon to Goldin, who hung it in his office, he heard.

During Stoiber鈥檚 five decades as a high-level government lawyer, his cartoons have found their way into the hands of many of the nation鈥檚 political elite, offering moments of levity amid long days and relentless responsibility.

He recalls a surprise phone call in the 1980s from President Ronald Reagan during a super-secret meeting at the National Security Agency.

鈥淗e told me that the secretary of state had given him a cartoon about the president phoning someone unexpectedly, and he just had to call me about it,鈥� says Stoiber, the lead author of the International Atomic Energy Agency鈥檚 two-volume聽Handbook on Nuclear Law. 鈥淲hen I asked how he found out where I was when my secretary, Ruby, didn鈥檛 know, he replied, 鈥榃ell, Mr. Stoiber, when presidents need to find somebody, they have ways of finding them!鈥欌��

Another time, Stoiber sketched a series of cartoons for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright鈥檚 60th birthday party.

鈥淎nd I have lots of pictures that never get circulated to these folks,鈥� he says.A visual person from childhood, Stoiber began cartooning in the 1950s at Casey Junior High School in Boulder, where he penned a strip called 鈥淭witterbird.鈥� He gave it up through college, saving his energy for CU鈥檚 student government (he became president), then resumed in law school following a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford.

鈥淟aw school was too much of a cartoonist鈥檚 dream,鈥� he says. 鈥淟awyers do a lot of funny things.鈥�

Stoiber has been drawing ever since 鈥� nearly 50 years now 鈥� producing thousands of cartoons and publishing hundreds. They鈥檝e appeared on the cover of聽Jane鈥檚 Defence Weekly聽(a British publication), in the聽Washington Post聽and in the State Department鈥檚 magazine. For more than a decade, he has drawn cartoons for a caption contest in the聽Biblical Archeology Review.

鈥淎 picture leaps out at me to put down and express what I鈥檓 thinking,鈥� says Stoiber, who lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife of 49 years,聽Susanne听(笔辞濒厂肠颈鈥�66).

(They met his senior year at CU: 鈥淔irst date was March 11, 1964,鈥� he says, 鈥渁t the Goldovsky Opera producton of Rossini鈥檚聽Marriage of Figaro聽in Macky Auditorium.鈥�)

After law school, Stoiber joined the U.S. Department of Justice, working in the Civil Rights Division, then as director of the Office of Indian Rights.

He developed expertise in nuclear law in the mid-1970s after a friend lured him to the newly formed U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

鈥淭hat was almost an accident,鈥� Stoiber says.

He鈥檇 left the Justice Department a few years earlier to study international law in London and The Hague. When he came back, he needed a job. The timing was perfect: In the 1970s, nuclear safety and nonproliferation were hot topics worldwide.

Sitting in meetings in Washington, Moscow, Vienna and other world capitals, Stoiber found abundant source material in front of him.

鈥淚鈥檝e been really surprised at the degree to which most everyone seems to think that [cartooning] is appropriate and moves things along,鈥� he says of others involved in the weighty affairs of state. 鈥淪ometimes if you get into a tricky negotiating situation, a little humor will really relax people and allow them to move away from rigid positions.鈥�

Like many cartoonists, Stoiber has found that portraying animal characters in human situations helps readers laugh at themselves: 鈥淒ogs and other animals can say something, get away with a statement which wouldn鈥檛 be acceptable from a human.鈥�

Nature is another favored subject. Stoiber has climbed all of Colorado鈥檚 14ers, as well as Mt. Fuji, Mount Olympus, Mount Sinai and Aconcagua, the highest peak in the Western Hemisphere 鈥� always with pen and paper.

Now 73, Stoiber continues to work part time as a consultant on international and nuclear law and lectures annually at the International School of Nuclear Law at the University of Montpellier in France, which he helped found.

鈥淚 still feel it鈥檚 worthwhile to spend my time on these nuclear issues since I have the expertise and experience,鈥� he says. 鈥淚鈥檓 committed to keeping nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists and saboteurs.鈥�

And, of course, Stoiber continues to draw, typically with a Sharpie fine point permanent marker for lines and a gray Prismacolor marker for shading.

鈥淚 can鈥檛 imagine not cartooning,鈥� he says. 鈥淯nless some sort of paralysis hits either my mind or my right hand, I don鈥檛 intend to lose my identity as a cartooning lawyer who climbs big mountains.鈥�

Illustrations and photo courtesy Carlton Stoiber