Neil Kosh, 84, painter, professor at Tyler School

Neil Kosh, 84, of North Wales, a painter who taught students at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University for 55 years, died of lung cancer Wednesday, Aug. 25, at home.

Professor Kosh, who joined the faculty at Temple in 1954, taught the finer points of proportion, perspective, and color to more than 6,500 students. He told the Temple Review in 2007 that when he first began teaching, "we even made our own paints."

In 1988 he was the recipient of the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, and in 1991 he received a $10,000 Temple Great Teachers Award. He also received the Alumni Association Certificate of Honor.

In 2009, Bruce Paul Grefe, an artist and former Tyler student, paid tribute to Professor Kosh on the occasion of his retirement.

"Professor Kosh likes to say that he does not teach art but rather teaches his students how to see," Grefe said. "He does much more. He taught us to listen, to speak, to feel, and to think. He also taught us to paint and draw."

Grefe said, "For many of his students, Professor Kosh's classroom spilled over into countless dinners and cocktail parties at his wonderful home - artists, musicians, academics, collectors, friends, and family - all thrown together in a carefully orchestrated mix against a soundtrack of bouzoukis, balalaikas, ouds, and Spanish guitars."

For three years in the 1970s, Professor Kosh lived in Italy with his family when he directed the Tyler School of Art program there. He told The Inquirer in 1973 that for students, "it's a chance to live in Rome, to have access to the world's best known museums, to experience the visual differences in colors, in the air, in the pace of life." He said, "In Italy, when most people sleep or laze around during the long day break, there's a quiet time for painting." But because of his administrative duties, he said, "for that kind of quiet, I now paint at night."

Besides teaching, Professor Kosh had more than 150 portrait commissions, including luminaries from Jefferson Medical School, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, and Temple, among them the university's former president Peter J. Liacouras.

He also produced paintings and pastel drawings of nudes in a style he described as "romantic realism." His work has been shown in numerous galleries and museums, including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the San Diego Museum of Art, and the National Academy of Design.

Professor Kosh graduated from Roxborough High School and then worked as a draftsman for Piasecki Helicopter Corp. "He loved aircraft and taught me to make model planes," said his son, Matthew.

Professor Kosh earned bachelor's degrees in fine arts and education and a master's degree in fine arts from Temple.

He is survived by his son and a daughter, Amy, who are both artists; by a granddaughter; and by his former wife, Leah Kosh.

No services are scheduled.

Donations may be made to the Neil Kosh Scholarship Fund, c/o Lois Gabin-Legato, Temple University Tyler School of Art, 1852 N. 10th St., Philadelphia 19122.