If one visual was ever the face of D&D ...

... to me this was it:

...and now the man who created it is gone. End of the story here.

He did lots of other iconic work besides this, a good look at some here.

That's the cover of my original PHB, still in pretty good shape after thirty-something years and many, many miles.

I'm sure he had friends and family who knew him better for other things but these are my connection.

Thank you Mr. Trampier.