Thomas G. Kovacs ’58
Tom Kovacs was a truly gifted athlete as a member of the Varsity Swim Team his three years at LHS. During his exceptional swim-ming career at Lakewood, Tom achieved All-American status, was an Ohio Individual State Champion and captained the team his sen-ior year.
After graduating from Lakewood High, Tom‟s career of swimming excellence continued at The Ohio State University where he was a three year collegiate All-American, a member of two NCAA Championship Relay Teams, one of which established a national record, and was co-captain of Ohio State‟s 1962 National Championship Team. Tom also won an individual silver medal at the NCAA Championship meet in 1961. Additionally, as member of the Cleveland Swim Club, he won Junior National Championship honors in 1959 and was bronze medal winner in two events at the 1961 National AAU Indoor Championships.
After earning Bachelor‟s and Master‟s degrees from Ohio State, Tom began a very successful 40 year career as educator and professor in the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Tom‟s tenure at Illinois included ap-pointments to department chair in the School‟s foundation design program and a two-year stint as assistant dean in the university‟s College of Fine and Applied Arts. During his final 15 years at Illinois, he served as head of the School‟s graphic design program. In 1997 he received the university‟s Award for Excellence in Extramural Teaching. Tom‟s personal design work achieved national recognition, and has been exhibited abroad in countries including Poland, Hungary, China, and Japan.
Although officially retired since 2004, Tom continues to teach in the univer-sity‟s Campus Honors Program and at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute in Cham-paign. He also continues to operate his studio, TGK Design.
Tom and his wife Susan, also a teacher and school principal, reside in Cham-paign, Illinois. They have two grown daughters and four grandchildren. In his free time Tom likes to workout, camp, hike, bird watch, and go fly fishing with his grandson Carter.