Obituary for Hugh Alexander Cosman
Hugh A. Cosman, whose career included work as a reporter covering architecture and urban affairs and electric vehicles, a position as shop manager of a metal fabrication business that owned the license to build Pilates machines and also fabricated sculptures for Isamu Noguchi, and owning a metal fabrication business with clients such as The Museum of Modern Art, died on May 19, from cancer. He was 68.
Cosman was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Bronxville, New York. His father, Cornelius, who grew up in Germany, was a metallurgist and a consultant to the United Nations, and his mother, Tatiana Manooiloff, who grew up in China, taught Russian at Sarah Lawrence, Barnard, and Swarthmore. He attended the Hackley School, where he was president of the student body. After a gap year, he enrolled at Vassar College. While there, he was drafted. Having been raised a Quaker, he did alternative service in the laundry of Vassar Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie. Cosman loved trains and on returning to Vassar, he majored in History, writing a thesis with the title A General History of the New York Regional Rapid Transit System. For a time, he also considered a career as a sportswriter.
Cosman had a deep interest in jazz, rock and roll, and classical music, and in 1976 he was recruited to write for the magazine Musician, in Boulder, Colorado. In 1977, he moved to New York and worked in the election unit of CBS News, where he and a friend started the department’s softball team.
Cosman left CBS and became the writer of two newsletters, which he wrote on alternate weeks. One covered urban architecture and urban affairs and the other covered electric vehicles. In 1982 he was quoted by the New York Times as an authority on the subject. He wrote the newsletters for two years. During a hiatus he undertook a parody of The Inner Game of Tennis books, which he called The Inner Game of Drinking. He also sought work in advertising with a portfolio that included a spec ad for Ray-Ban sunglasses. The ad showed a woman on a beach wearing Ray-Bans and a tagline that said, “Sight for Shore Eyes.”
Cosman was primarily a gifted mechanic, restorer, builder, and solver of engineering problems. He once said that he wanted to live a life in which he always had grease under his fingernails. In 1985, he took the position as Shop Manager with Treitel-Gratz, a metal shop in Long Island City that also fabricated work for Walter de Maria and Barnett Newman. Cosman oversaw all of the firm’s projects, including fabricating and installing the standing button threaded with a needle at 7th Avenue and 39th Street, the emblem of the Garment District. Meanwhile, he patiently rebuilt a 1956 F-100 Ford big window pickup, a project that was described in “The Talk of the Town” department of The New Yorker. Eventually, he opened his own metal shop, Encore Metal Arts, which he ran for several years, doing work for commercial and residential clients. After closing his firm, he took an interest in politics. During Dennis Kucinich’s presidential campaign, in 2004, Cosman served as his New York representative, accompanying him to his public appearances and interviews.
Cosman was beloved by his friends for his willingness to drop whatever he was doing to help them move, or fix their cars, or solve the difficulties of a construction project, even to give them places to live. He was an enthusiastic follower of the Cleveland Indians and when he was younger attended home games with friends who were willing to make the trip to Cleveland from New York. He was also exceptionally knowledgeable about soccer. He managed the U-16 soccer team his son belonged to, the New York Athletic Club S.C., helping to develop it into one of the country’s premier teams. He bought cleats and uniforms for the team, he hired tutors for its underprivileged members, and he lobbied college coaches to award them scholarships.
For his family, he restored a townhouse on Manhattan Avenue where he lived for several years before moving to rural New Jersey. In 2017, he purchased the train station in Milford, New Jersey and spent two years painstakingly renovating it. In 2019, the building became the premises of the highly regarded restaurant Canal House Station.
He is survived by his wife, Melissa Hamilton, two sons, Haden and Lucas, from his previous marriage, two stepdaughters, Olivia Goldfarb and Eliot Hagerty, three sisters, Catherine, Anna, and Michaela, and his first wife, Mariko Gordon. For many of his friends and family he is irreplaceable.
Donations in Hugh's memory may be made to the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
Cosman was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Bronxville, New York. His father, Cornelius, who grew up in Germany, was a metallurgist and a consultant to the United Nations, and his mother, Tatiana Manooiloff, who grew up in China, taught Russian at Sarah Lawrence, Barnard, and Swarthmore. He attended the Hackley School, where he was president of the student body. After a gap year, he enrolled at Vassar College. While there, he was drafted. Having been raised a Quaker, he did alternative service in the laundry of Vassar Brothers Hospital in Poughkeepsie. Cosman loved trains and on returning to Vassar, he majored in History, writing a thesis with the title A General History of the New York Regional Rapid Transit System. For a time, he also considered a career as a sportswriter.
Cosman had a deep interest in jazz, rock and roll, and classical music, and in 1976 he was recruited to write for the magazine Musician, in Boulder, Colorado. In 1977, he moved to New York and worked in the election unit of CBS News, where he and a friend started the department’s softball team.
Cosman left CBS and became the writer of two newsletters, which he wrote on alternate weeks. One covered urban architecture and urban affairs and the other covered electric vehicles. In 1982 he was quoted by the New York Times as an authority on the subject. He wrote the newsletters for two years. During a hiatus he undertook a parody of The Inner Game of Tennis books, which he called The Inner Game of Drinking. He also sought work in advertising with a portfolio that included a spec ad for Ray-Ban sunglasses. The ad showed a woman on a beach wearing Ray-Bans and a tagline that said, “Sight for Shore Eyes.”
Cosman was primarily a gifted mechanic, restorer, builder, and solver of engineering problems. He once said that he wanted to live a life in which he always had grease under his fingernails. In 1985, he took the position as Shop Manager with Treitel-Gratz, a metal shop in Long Island City that also fabricated work for Walter de Maria and Barnett Newman. Cosman oversaw all of the firm’s projects, including fabricating and installing the standing button threaded with a needle at 7th Avenue and 39th Street, the emblem of the Garment District. Meanwhile, he patiently rebuilt a 1956 F-100 Ford big window pickup, a project that was described in “The Talk of the Town” department of The New Yorker. Eventually, he opened his own metal shop, Encore Metal Arts, which he ran for several years, doing work for commercial and residential clients. After closing his firm, he took an interest in politics. During Dennis Kucinich’s presidential campaign, in 2004, Cosman served as his New York representative, accompanying him to his public appearances and interviews.
Cosman was beloved by his friends for his willingness to drop whatever he was doing to help them move, or fix their cars, or solve the difficulties of a construction project, even to give them places to live. He was an enthusiastic follower of the Cleveland Indians and when he was younger attended home games with friends who were willing to make the trip to Cleveland from New York. He was also exceptionally knowledgeable about soccer. He managed the U-16 soccer team his son belonged to, the New York Athletic Club S.C., helping to develop it into one of the country’s premier teams. He bought cleats and uniforms for the team, he hired tutors for its underprivileged members, and he lobbied college coaches to award them scholarships.
For his family, he restored a townhouse on Manhattan Avenue where he lived for several years before moving to rural New Jersey. In 2017, he purchased the train station in Milford, New Jersey and spent two years painstakingly renovating it. In 2019, the building became the premises of the highly regarded restaurant Canal House Station.
He is survived by his wife, Melissa Hamilton, two sons, Haden and Lucas, from his previous marriage, two stepdaughters, Olivia Goldfarb and Eliot Hagerty, three sisters, Catherine, Anna, and Michaela, and his first wife, Mariko Gordon. For many of his friends and family he is irreplaceable.
Donations in Hugh's memory may be made to the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.