GOWAN, Albert J. Designer, writer and Professor of graphic design, Albert J. Gowan passed away peacefully from complications of congestive heart failure on November 2, 2017 at 83. "Uncle Al" to generations of students at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Gowan was an inspirational educator, trusted advisor and mentor, and a skilled strategist. Born in East St. Louis, Illinois, his talent for design emerged in high school. Summer jobs in the shipyards where his father, uncles, and cousins built barges stoked a desire for a different kind of life. The first in his family to attend college, he enrolled at Southern Illinois University (SIU) and later graduated from the University of Missouri, in design and creative writing. He worked in both disciplines for the rest of his life. His encounter with Harold Cohen and Buckminster Fuller at SIU forged Al's view of design as a force for change. He left advertising to pursue this mission in 1964, launching a teaching career at Indiana University. He moved to Purdue University in 1966 to build its design program with Victor Papanek, another profound influence. He also redesigned the university seal. The asymmetrical design was printed symmetrically on a pennant Neil Armstrong, a Purdue graduate, took on the Apollo 11 mission, which to Al's great relief, was not left behind for eternity. The end of his first marriage and a position at Boston University brought him to Boston in 1970. In 1974, as the first director of the Cambridge Arts Council, he proposed what became the Cambridge River Festival and ran a contest to design the logo still in use on city garbage trucks. With an MFA from Goddard College, Al returned to academia in 1977, teaching graphic design, design history, and letterpress printing at MassArt for 25 years. He also started and ran the evening certificate program, co-founded and taught in the graduate design program, and was chair of the Design Department twice. In retirement, Al was instrumental to the college's acquisition of the extensive collection of 19th century typefaces assembled by Boston printer T.J. Lyons. Al wrote regularly on design and design education. He published articles in Print, ID, and Icographic magazines and four books on design and design history—Nuts and Bolts: A Public Design Casebook; T.J. Lyons: A Biography and Critical Essay; Shared Vision: The Second American Bauhaus; and Victor Papanek: Path of a Design Prophet. An engaging storyteller and singer, Al collected stories and songs, many of which found their way to his fiction. He published stories in Yankee and Ploughshares, two novels (Zamora's Tattoo and Santiago Rag), and a collection of short stories, Fort Momma. He was an active member of the Society of Printers, the St. Botolph Club, and the bass section of the Revels singers. Al leaves his wife of 25 years, Susan Hunziker. He is also survived by his brother James Gowan of Hillsboro, Missouri; his daughters Karen Smith and Amy Schaller, and son Blake Gowan, of Lafayette, Indiana, and son Jeff Gowan of Pelham, New Hampshire; seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. The Al Gowan Fund to support the use of the T.J. Lyons Collection has been established. Contributions can be made to the MassArt Foundation. A celebration of life will be held at the college on Sunday, February 11 from 1 to 3 pm.

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Published by Boston Globe from Jan. 16 to Jan. 21, 2018.

Memories and Condolences
for ALBERT GOWAN

6 Entries

Jose Luis Delgado Guitart

May 29, 2025

Gran amigo y "maestro". Gracias a el estuve de docente en Mass College of Art. We had a chance to share good times in my home town Madrid (Spain). Al: thanks for all your support and friendhip. Un abrazo.

Cal Swann

January 11, 2021

Al Gowan – ‘Big Al’ as we in the Polytechnic called him, was a very popular designer/teacher who gave terrific projects to our students and stayed with me a few times at our home in Keele during the mid seventies. Al had worked with Victor Papanek, they were good friends and colleagues from Purdue University in Ohio. He knew that Victor had just moved to Manchester, England, for a spell of lecturing at Manchester Polytechnic. We arranged for Victor to come to North Staffs for a lecture which was duly given to a large, invited audience with great success, a coup for our smaller college, thanks to Al.
Professor Gowan was a regular darts player at our local pub and one time we took him to a snooker hall to show him the British game of snooker and billiards. Al was used to pool tables and couldn’t believe the size and distance from the cue to the ball as he sprawled across the green baize, complaining that ‘things in lil ole England are supposed to be smaller than the US, what happened to my pool table’ Later on we were having lunch at another pub when the Queen was driven by on the road alongside. The small flag bedecked cavalcade swept gently along with hardly a pause and was gone in seconds. Al observed that ‘THAT was a British understatement and no mistake’. I miss that Yank.

Playing darts at Paddy's

January 30, 2018

Cal Swann

January 21, 2018

Al came to us in England (where I was then Head of Graphic Design, North Staffordhsire Polytechnic) for three or four visits in the mid seventies, purring a charming American drawl about international design trends and America in particular, teaching a meticulous brand of typography, to the delight of our very English students.
A regular visitor to my home in Staffordshire, Al would sing for his supper' by reading one of his own short stories. A fine and humorous writer, he regaled us with some new tale he had to tell from his adventures, usually while on tour around the UK. He skilfully employed the short story formula of setting a scene, building an expectation, then introducing a complication, but finishing with an unexpected and always humorous twist. Like many Americans (and Australians as I was later to find), stemming from such a vast country, he thought little of hitch-hiking to the Lake District and then doubling back to Land's End. In the same weekend.
One such journey (by train) had him chatting up a Moroccan belly dancer from a highly unlikely Wolverhampton, and then, with her happy agreement, raffling off her phone number to a pub full of eager Stoke blokes. I could never understand how Al could pop over the Atlantic and have so many interesting adventures in a matter of a few weeks, while I led a humdrum life for decades, let alone write entertaining stories about such experiences. It is no surprise to me that Emeritus Professor Al Gowan had several full-length novels and text-books to his name, and we were still partners through time and the Internet. I am so pleased to have known Al as a colleague and friend; I'm richer for it.
Cal Swann, Perth, Western Australia

George Anderson

January 21, 2018

Thinking out loud with Al, I once mused that it takes a lifetime to create and live a life, and another life time to share the memories with someone else. My loss that I did not have enough time to get to 'know' him. My gain that I got to meet him. It was all good.

Jolene Lewis

January 17, 2018

Rest in peace beloved Albert J. Gowan. You are deeply loved and missed. Deepest of condolences to the whole family.

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