Sterling Strauser was born in Bloomsburg, PA on August 15, 1907. He received his BA degree from Bloomsburg State College and married Dorothy Ferry, his high school sweetheart, in June 1928. Starting to work at a boiler works company as a shipping clerk, he rose to become the secretary of the company. Before his retirement in 1962, his painting was limited to evenings, his interest in art having been kindled as a child by a gift of crayons from an aunt.

The Zimbalist Gallery in New York showed his work in 1939 where many pieces were sold and the reviews were positive. Currently his works are being shown worldwide and are included in the permanent collections of Allentown Museum of Art, Allentown, PA; Everhart Museum, Scranton, PA; Cheekwood Museum, Nashville, TN; Maier Museum or Art (Randolph-Macon Woman's College), Lynchburg, VA; Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN; The American Museum in Britain, Bath, England; Leigh University, Bethlehem, PA; and a number of corporate collections.

Strauser, whose German name is translated "one who binds the flowers," paints many subjects but is best known for his florals. His eye for color combined with his opulent strokes make him a major impressionist artist who contends "a painting has a personality all its own." Fellow artist, David Burliuk, said of Strauser, "It is amazing to find a self-taught artist in a quaint little provincial village painting like the masters in the great art centers of the world."
-Stanford Fine Art