Laura Pezzini
lpezzini@mustangdaily.net
Harvey Levenson was always interested in design, but didn’t think to turn it into a career until a trial-and-error attempt at accounting showed him what he didn’t want to do.
“That lasted for about a year,” Levenson said. “My focus was not in the right place and accounting was not something I enjoyed, but I was always good at graphic things. I found my niche right there.”
Now, the graphic communication department chair of 30 years has announced his plans to retire at the end of the spring term.
“The stars kind of lined up,” Levenson said. “It seemed like the right thing to do.”
Levenson said his plans for retirement are the result of several factors coming together, including his wife’s decision to retire.
“My wife is a pharmacist at Atascadero State Hospital, and she’s been there for 27 years, and she’s also retiring, so we decided to retire at the same time,” Levenson said. “It seemed to make a lot of sense.”
Levenson said he has been considering retirement for approximately a year, though to him it has not been a lengthy thought process.
“Actually it hasn’t been a long process,” Levenson said. “I started thinking about it last spring. I decided that it’s probably a good thing to do, and 30 years is a long time.”
Replacing Levenson will be Ken Macro, who is currently an associate professor in the department. Levenson said he fully supports the appointment of Macro as department head, as does the rest of the graphic communication faculty.
“He’s a longtime faculty member here,” Levenson said. “Very popular among the students, excellent professor and very well-liked by his colleagues. Ken Macro was selected and unanimously supported by the faculty, the dean approved it and he’ll be starting when I retire in June.”
But Levenson plans on remaining involved in the graphic communication department through the Graphic Communication Institute (GrCI), which provides an avenue for research in the field.
“I do a lot of things in the graphic communication field and in the industry, but I was also approached by the faculty about assisting in one area that would be inappropriate for a new chair coming in to handle, and that’s the Graphic Communication Institute,” Levenson said.
Levenson said he is unsure about how long he will remain involved with the GrCI, but is happy to help.
“I’m going to be around,” Levenson said. “I’m not sure for how long, but I told the faculty I would help out and continue that facet of the department. I think it would be unfair to have a new chair come in and do that, so they asked me if I would kind of hang around and help with that, so I decided that I would.”
But Levenson didn’t start in graphic communication — in fact, his first foray into higher education was as an accounting major and baseball player at Pace University in New York, then known as Pace College.
“When I started off in college, I actually didn’t study graphic communication, I studied accounting,” Levenson said. “Somehow someone told me that’s a field that I would be good at.”
Dissatisfied with accounting, Levenson left Pace to study graphic communication in New York.
“I decided, ‘Let me see what’s out there in the field of graphic arts that might appeal to me,’ so I decided to go to school at night and get a job during the day,” Levenson said. “I started off in New York City’s advertising and publishing community.”
Soon after graduating from the New York City College of Technology and gaining industry experience working for several advertising agencies, Levenson went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, a master’s degree from South Dakota State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh — all degrees in the field of communications.
Levenson soon ended up in education and came to Cal Poly as the graphic communication department head in 1983. Levenson attributes his success as department head to the support and opportunities made available by Cal Poly.
“Working with the students, being supported by the administration, and being able to hire a premiere faculty were vital to myself being able to do what I did here,” Levenson said.
Levenson started right away teaching three classes — one for beginning students, one mid-level class and one senior project course — that allowed him access to students at the beginning, middle and end of their college careers.
“I wanted to get to know them from day one and I wanted them to get to know me,” Levenson said. “Then I’d get back to the students, I’d get to know them when they were about halfway through and get a sense of their feelings about the program and Cal Poly as I was teaching a course to them. And then I wanted to reacquaint myself with the students right before they graduate.”
However, Levenson lightened his teaching load when he was asked to fill in as interim department chair for Cal Poly’s journalism department in 2010.
“That was interesting,” Levenson said. “I got to meet some very interesting people in the field of journalism. I think we achieved a few things in a couple years.”
With experience extending beyond his academic career, Levenson was involved with multiple organizations related to graphic communications, naming the Technical Association of the Graphic Arts (TAGA) as his favorite.
“I spent a lot of years with them and served some time on their Board of Directors,” Levenson said. “They hold the kind of meetings and conferences where you hear from the leading scientists and engineers and technologists in the field about up and coming new technologies that are becoming important.”
Levenson also received awards on behalf of his work in graphic communication, one of which was awarded for his involvement with the Public Printer of the United States of America in its campaign for literacy in the United States.
“Many years ago, I was chair of the Academic Advisory Council for the Public Printer of the United States of America,” Levenson said. “We put together a grassroots literacy program to help fund literacy centers around the United States. I was invited to the White House to consult with them. I was proud of that.”
But Levenson always remained an educator, saying that what inspires his most has always been his students.
“The students here at Cal Poly are second to none, and it’s amazing how focused, how bright and how involved they are in their studies here,” Levenson said. “They come in very bright and they leave brighter.”
Colleagues revere Levenson for his past 30 years of work. Professor Malcolm Kief attributed much of the department’s success to Levenson’s efforts.
“Harvey is particularly gifted at developing partnerships with industry, which has resulted in some of the best equipment in any university in the country,” Kief said.
The words of praise were echoed by lecturer Gordon Rivera, who said Levenson will be missed.
“All you have to do is walk through the GrC labs and see Harvey’s contribution to the program,” Rivera said. “He is a tireless promoter of all things print. His shoes will be hard to fill.”
And though this chapter of Levenson’s work may be coming to a close, he remains adamant that this is not the end of his career.
“I’m going back to work,” Levenson said. “Actually I like to tell people that I’m retiring from the state of California, not from my profession.”