Nyna Brael Polumbaum A'44

Before Nyna Brael Polumbaum graduated from Cooper, she graduated from the first class of the New York High School of Music and Art, which later became the Fiorello LaGuardia High School of Music and the Arts. She went on to attend Yale School of Fine Arts for Drama, as well. She had been recently celebrated at an exhibition of her 1990 digital prints, which were shown in her senior center gallery. At 102 1/2, Nyna passed away at her home in Brookline, MA on September 10, 2026 after a long life of creativity and activism. She is survived by her three children, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Read more about Nyna's life here.

  • 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.