Fred Chomowicz AR'53—artist, architect, actor, and adjunct professor—passed away on March 19, 2026 at the age of 93.

A native New Yorker, Fred graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School before attending The Cooper Union School of Architecture. In his very first week of class, he helped a first-year art student, Lucille Young, figure out how to use a ruling pen. That chance encounter led to a 71-year marriage—Fred and Lucille were a true Cooper Couple. Though a city guy through and through, Fred had a love of sports and the outdoors, and some of his fondest memories of Cooper were at Green Camp. 

After graduating in 1953, Fred attended the University of Cincinnati School of Architecture on a full scholarship, followed by two years of service in the U.S. Army at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

Fred and his family returned to New York, where he built much of his career at Davis, Brody, Bond Architects. Specializing in laboratory and medical buildings, he founded and led the firm's Philadelphia office for many years. In the late 1980s, he began teaching at Cooper Union, ultimately spending more than two decades here. His course on professional practice was one that, by his own admission, most students didn't pay much attention to while absorbed in their thesis work, but it was the one he heard about most often afterward. Alumni reached out to him for years, grateful for the practical foundation his course had given their careers. Upon retirement, Fred and Lucille moved to Portland, Oregon, where for more than ten years he supported Zimmer, Gunsul, Frasca Architects on projects throughout the U.S. and abroad. 

Fred also discovered a passion for stage acting at Cooper Union and never let it go. Throughout his career, he joined the casts of dozens of community productions across New Jersey, delighting in offbeat characters, especially those that called for a mastery of foreign accents. He was a lifelong traveler who explored Asia and South America, though it was to Europe that he returned most often. He never tired of Paris or Venice, his two most beloved cities.

Throughout his life, Fred was a draftsman. He drew everything: cities, buildings, the textures of daily life, and most especially people. His thousands of drawings of fellow commuters stand as a remarkable portfolio of a life spent in keen observation of humanity. This was Fred's singular gift as an artist: he held up a mirror to the world so that the rest of us might better understand it—and ourselves. In his characters, his drawings, his buildings, and his teaching, Fred offered a quiet conviction that each of us has something to contribute to a deeper understanding of what it means to be human.

Fred is survived by his wife Lucille A'54, his daughter Amy, his sons David and Peter AR'89, and four grandchildren.