Joseph Kuszai Jr.

Joseph John Kuszai Jr.
Design Evangelist and Family Man
August 6, 1932 - February 12, 2019

Joe Kuszai of East Lansing passed peacefully at home surrounded by family on February 12, 2019. He taught Graphic Design at Michigan State University for 50 years.

Born in 1932 in Hartford, Connecticut, and raised on a tobacco farm, Joe was a 1951 graduate of Glastonbury High School where he was a standout center on the basketball team and active in the drama club and student government. Even in high school, he was recognized for his design work, the Hartford Courant noting in 1951 his "unusual posters" advertising a school dance. For the committee putting together the senior yearbook, Joe made 30 different designs of the crest to be used on the cover, before the committee enthusiastically chose the one that was used.

Joe always said he could fly an airplane before he could drive a car, and drove a tractor before that. After high school he wanted to go to college so he enlisted in the United States Air Force, serving primarily in Nome, Alaska, where he worked on aircraft during the Korean War. It was while stationed at Dover Air Force Base that Joe met the love of his life, Shirley Collins of Laurel, Delaware. They corresponded through letters for the duration of his service.

In the Fall of 1955, Joe enrolled at Rhode Island School of Design on the G.I. Bill, hitchhiking to Delaware on weekends to see Shirley. After they were married in Delaware in 1956, the couple lived on William Street in Providence while Joe was in school. After RISD, Joe studied design at Yale University under Paul Rand among others.

After Joe finished his MFA at Yale, the couple settled initially in Forest Hills, Queens, then Sea Cliff, Long Island. Shirley commuted to work at McGraw Hill and Joe did design work and typography for Greenwich Village publishers Clarke & Way, photography at Look Magazine and record cover and sleeve design for Columbia Records. He also did printing for artists as various as Richard Avedon and Leonard Baskin.

In 1965 he was recruited to develop a design program at Michigan State University, where he taught until 2014, raising three children, Christine, Joel and Cara. He was known as an innovative educator, an evangelist of process-oriented design education, and an early adopter of technology in instruction as well as in design. A colorful figure, he was often seen on campus riding his '66 Vespa, sporting a white eggshell helmet.

Joe enjoyed watching MSU and Detroit sports teams, as well as boxing and golf. He loved cooking and cars, late in life indulging himself with a Model A from his birth year. He always wanted everyone to be happy and would prefer everyone carry on as needed.

Shirley preceded him in 2017. In addition to his three children, he is survived by his brothers James and Edward; sisters Susan and Jackie; four grandchildren, Dylan, Noa, Oskar and Joya; and a daughter-in-law, Kendra.

There will be a memorial at the Kuszai residence in East Lansing on March 16, 2019 from noon - 5pm. A day before passing, he asked for a party in his honor in August. In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests donations be made to the Joe and Shirley Kuszai Endowed Scholarship in Graphic Design at Michigan State University.