Decorated architect George Nakashima dies at 85
George Nakashima, the world-renowned artist and woodworker who was named University of Washington Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus for 1990, died June 15. His death came only a few days after the 1929 graduate visited campus from his home in New Hope, Pa., to receive the award and be honored at 1990 commencement ceremonies.
Nakashima, 85, had been in poor health since suffering a stroke in October 1989. Born in Spokane, Nakashima worked on building railroads through the Cascades and at salmon canneries in Alaska. After earning his degree in architecture at the UW, he went on to study at MIT and in France. Prior to World War II, he spent four years in Japan and two years in an ashram in India where he became a disciple of the Hindu philosopher Sri Aurobindo.
After being interned during the early years of World War II, Nakashima moved to New Hope where, over the ensuing decades, he created furnishings for homes, churches and public buildings around the world. His commissions included a room in the Japanese wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. One of his last pieces of work was the three-quarter-ton Altar of Peace at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York.