Thomas J. Michalski January 28, 1933 – July 23, 2018
Tom Michalski came to the University of Michigan from Waukesha, Wisconsin to study architecture and city planning. He received his Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1956 and earned a Masters in City Planning in 1959.
Tom became a Delta Chi in 1952. Tom was proud of his Delta Chi affiliation and worked tirelessly to build its image as he felt it should be. While active he served as the steward overseeing the kitchen, chef, menus and dining room. Tom could always be counted on to encourage Delta Chi to strive to be a noted presence on campus.
For the time he lived in the house, he shared the “architect’s room” (so named because of all its windows) with Don Skinner (also B. Arch 1956). The two of them spent many “all nighters” at the end of a semester completing their architectural projects. .
Tom began his career as an Urban Renewal Planner for the City of Milwaukee (1956-57). He worked as a Land Planner and Urban Designer for Baltimore County Maryland, 1959-1960. He later began a planning consultancy in Princeton, New Jersey which later moved to New York and places in the Middle East. Throughout his career he remained a city planner and continued also a student, political activist, professor, author and civic volunteer.
Some of the projects of which he was proud included the design of a new city, Yanbu, for the Royal Commission in Saudi Arabia, consulting on settlements in Nairobi, Kenya and new town planning at Tehran, Iran.
Academically Tom was a professor at Rollins College, faculty member at City University of New York, New York University and did advance studies at Magdalene College, Cambridge University. He authored two books on planning sustainable communities.
Upon retirement from active planning consultancies, Tom moved to Melbourne, Florida in 2005.
Contributed by Bill Thewalt ’58
