Raphael Boguslav

Newport, RI - Raphael Boguslav, 80, of 50 Old Beach Road, Newport, RI, died Sunday, July 18, 2010 at Rhode Island Hospital, one week before his 81st birthday, from complications from injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident. He is survived by his former wife, Donna Boguslav of Manhattan and by Mary Ann Kesson of Portsmouth, his partner of fourteen years. Born in New York, NY on July 24, 1929, he was the son of the late Isaac and Mary (Brown) Boguslav. Raphael attended the High School of Music and Art in New York and subsequently graduated from the Cooper Union School of Art in that city. Equally talented musically he was a skillful classical pianist and a distinguished guitarist and singer. He toured extensively with Harry Belafonte and with Theodore Bikel, gave a solo concert at Carnegie Hall, and released two solo recordings. Through the sixties he worked as a graphic designer for the firm of Lippincott and Margulies in New York, where he produced package designs, trademarks and logotypes including such iconic images as the New York Life insurance logotype and the trademark for the Internal Revenue Service. Following this he ran his own graphic design studio in Manhattan for several years. His graphic work and his pen and brush lettering earned him a prominent place in the world of fine art calligraphy. In the nineteen seventies he moved to Newport Rhode Island where he studied painting and continued his work as a graphic designer. He was an ardent tennis player and fan, a devoted reader, a brilliant conversationalist and a valued friend to all who knew him. A memorial service in his memory will be held on Saturday, September 11, 2010, at 3:00PM, in the Harrison Room of the Redwood Library, 50 Bellevue Avenue, Newport. Donations in his memory may be made to the Redwood Library, 50 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI 02840.