Theodore C. Polos, painter, printmaker and teacher, was born in Mytilene, Greece on February 16, 1901. In 1916 Polos immigrated the United States, settling in the Boston area for a few years before moving to San Francisco in 1922. He studied with Constance Macky at the San Francisco Institute of Art and with Xavier Martinez at the College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.

Polos worked on and off for the San Francisco Federal Art Project between January 1937 and October 1940, working mainly on the Easel Project. While working for the FAP he spent three to four months on the Lithography Project where he worked on about a dozen stones. He shared the first CSFA Rosenberg scholarship for foreign study in art and it enabled him to travel to Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico.

He taught at the Academy of Advertising Art, The California College of Art & Crafts, and the California School of Fine Arts and he was a member of San Francisco Art Association. Polos' works were included in the San Francisco Museum of Art Inaugural, the 1939 New York World's Fair, the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Riverside Museum in New York, Phillips Memorial Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Carnegie Institute Invitationals.