Born in Price, Utah on July 4, 1913, William Dean Fausett graduated from Brigham Young University and further studied at the Art Students League in New York City. Most of his career was spent in Dorset, Vermont where he died on December 13, 1998. He was the younger brother of artist, Lynn Fausett (1894-1977).

Vermont painter, Dean Fausett (William Dean Fausett), who painted portraits of Ronald Reagan, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Hoagy Carmichael and former Vermont Governor Thomas Salmon, died in December 1998 at the age of 85. Fausett, who was known by his middle name, split his time between Dorset, Vermont and New York. Fausett painted murals and landscapes, as well as portraits. Many of his celebrated works depict Vermont. Dwight Eisenhower picked one of those, "Derby View," to hang in his White House study when he was elected president.

Fausett's work has been represented in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art.