In memoriam: Pavel K. Smejtek, 1936-2021 PAVEL K. SMEJTEK, who served Portland State for more than three decades as a professor of physics, died October 5 at age 85. Professor Smejtek was born March 27, 1936, in Zilina, Slovakia, to Jan and Pavla Smejtek. He received an M.S. in 1961 from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute (now Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University). In 1962 he was married to his first wife, Nadya, and the couple settled in Prague, where Professor Smejtek received a Ph.D. in 1965 from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences (now the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic). When the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, the Smejtek family fled in their small Skoda car. They traveled through Austria, France, and Belgium, and eventually landed in North Carolina, where Professor Smejtek accepted an appointment at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He joined Portland State in 1972 as a professor of physics. His key research focused on surface and interface properties of artificial and biological membranes and environmental membrane biophysics. In 2003 he was recognized for his outstanding teaching by students in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. After his retirement in 2003, he continued his research as an emeritus professor for 10 years. Professor Smejtek’s first marriage ended in divorce in 1989. In 1993 he married Shanru Wang, and they traveled widely during their nearly three decades together. The Smejteks had a second home in Maui, Hawaii, visited family in China and the Czech Republic, and enjoyed traveling to Mexico and various parts of Europe. Professor Smejtek is survived by his wife, Shanru Wang; stepdaughter, Jennie Mao; son, Dalibor Smejtek and his wife, Penny Ross; granddaughter, Isabella Smejtek; sister, Jana Kostkan; and nephew, Tomas Kostkan and his family. Professor Smejtek’s death was preceded by that of his parents and brother-in-law Jiri Kostkan. In memoriam: Michihiro Kosuge, 1943-2021 MICHIHIRO KOSUGE, a longtime Portland State professor of art, a fixture in the Portland art community, and a sculptor whose work is recognized throughout the Pacific Northwest, died on October 13. He was 78 years old. Professor Kosuge was born in Tokyo on March 29, 1943. He studied sculpture at Tokyo Sumida Technical School of Architecture and graduated with a B.A. in 1961. He came to the United States in 1967 to study architecture, but soon returned to sculpture. “After taking several art courses to better understand shape and form,” he said in an article on the Washington State Arts Commission website, “I found that making sculpture was a much better way to express my ideas and my way of thinking.” Professor Kosuge received a Master of Fine Arts in sculpture from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1970. He soon moved to Oregon and joined the Portland State Department of Art—now the School of Art + Design—in 1978, where he remained until his retirement. He became a full professor in 1989, served three years as department chair, and was promoted to emeritus after his 2003 retirement. A remembrance on the Russo Lee Gallery website described Professor Kosuge’s work as reflecting “the interaction of humans with nature and a profound respect for the natural world. . . For anyone who knew Michi, they recognized a passionate soul who was intently thoughtful and considerate of those around him. Like his sculptures that created welcoming places of peace and reflection, Michi possessed a deep kindness and willingness to listen and collaborate with a diversity of voices.” The gallery represented Professor Kosuge for many years, and he and the gallery’s founder, Laura Russo, were life partners. She died in 2010. According to an article on the School of Art + Design website, his work has been shown at major museums in the United States, including the Portland Art Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Oakland Art Museum, and the Seattle Art Museum. Among Professor Kosuge’s major public works is a five-piece commission for the Portland Tri-Met Transit Mall. Professor Kosuge’s work in granite, Beacons of Creativity (2016), is in the lobby of Lincoln Hall’s Broadway Gallery. Commissioned through a gift from the estate of Denis Norstrom, the base stone represents the College of the Arts, and four stones atop the base stone represent the schools within the college—Architecture, Art + Design, Film, and Music and Theater. PSU Archives Digital Gallery 1985 8 The RAPS Sheet December 2021
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