George Lenox

George Paul Lenox George Paul Lenox, designer, typographer, teacher, and mentor, died at Christopher House of colon cancer on March 14. Lenox was born in 1926 to George Clayton Lenox and Elizabeth (White) Lenox in Detroit, Michigan. Printing, typography, graphic design, and book publishing were his life's passion. He participated in, and has documented in his own work, significant transitions in design and printing technology, from letterpress to digital typesetting and from paste-up to pdf. He brought a contemporary design sensibility to academic publishing and helped lead university presses to trade paperbacks, overseas printing, sophisticated use of color, and regional trade programs. His long list of awards, (which began with a Fifty Books of the Year award for his first book in 1956), his love and respect for typography, and his high production standards have elevated the work of all the designers who knew, studied with, or worked for him. Lenox went into a print shop at the age of twelve and virtually never came out. He graduated from Cass Tech High School in Detroit, where he studied printing and printing history, and served in the U.S. Army during World War II, in the Philippines and in Japan during the Occupation, where he was forever imprinted with an appreciation of Japanese art and culture. He earned his degree in graphic design from the University of Michigan on the GI Bill in 1951, two years after he married Ethel Callaghan, also from Detroit. His career took him to Chicago, Ann Arbor, Honolulu, Boston, and Austin and included, most notably, a long commitment to scholarly publishing. He was director of design and production at the University of Michigan Press (1953-1963), associate director of the East-West Center Press in Hawaii (1963-1969), and associate director and designer at the University of Texas Press (1979-1992). He was associate professor of art at the University of Hawaii from 1967 to 1971 and designer and lecturer in art from 1974 to 1979 at the University of Texas, where he also created a student design lab. Throughout most of his career, he also ran a freelance design business, designing not only books but also company logos and publishers' marks. Lenox leaves his second wife, Shannon Davies, a daughter, Catherine Lenox, and a granddaughter, Elizabeth (Libby) Lenox, all of Austin; a son, Richard Lenox, and daughter-in-law, Duana Nelson, of Cupertino, California; a sister, Elizabeth Schroeder, of Detroit; and an extended family of in-laws, nephews, and nieces. Friends and family are invited to remember George Lenox at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden in Austin between 5:00 and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 25. Donations to Hospice Austin.