In Memoriam

Steven Koestenblatt CE'64

Steven Koestenblatt CE'64 died on May 2, 2022 at the age of 79 in Fort Myers, Florida.

William Schrank ME'61

William E. Schrank ME'61 (82) of Digby, Nova Scotia passed away peacefully on April 13, 2023 surrounded by his family. He had succumbed to the complications of late-stage Parkinson’s. Bill was born in Brooklyn, New York to Ann and Charles Schrank. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School and then Cooper Union, where he earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering.

Sandra Blaylock Seifert A'56

Sandra Blaylock Seifert A'56 a Texan by heart and a woman of strength and independent spirit, passed away on April 3rd, 2023, in her hometown of Chattanooga, TN. She was a grounded personality that made her loved and respected by all who knew her. Sandra was born in Amarillo, Texas, and moved to Chattanooga with her parents and sister, graduating from Chattanooga City High and then moving to New York City on a scholarship to attend the Cooper Union Institute of Art and Science.

Carl Fischer A'48

Carl Fischer A'48, Who Shot Attention-Getting Esquire Covers, Dies at 98

Among his most famous photographs was one depicting Muhammad Ali as a martyr stuck full of arrows.

Carl Fischer, the photographer who shot some of Esquire magazine’s most famous and provocative covers of the 1960s and early ’70s, including images of Muhammad Ali pierced by arrows and Andy Warhol falling into a giant can of tomato soup, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 98.

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.