The Collegian

Issue date: 1/31/08 Section: News

Media Credit: courtesy of External Affairs

"Professor Patric," as he sometimes signed his artwork, rode his motorcycle to class.
"When the weather was bad, he'd be down in the dumps because he couldn't ride his bike to school," junior Jake Donovan said of the professor who even rode his Harley Davidson as far as Kansas to visit his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.

Art Lecturer Patric Fourshé died Tuesday at Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo, Mich., from complications following a massive heart attack he suffered Jan. 23. Fourshé was 64 years old.

In addition to teaching graphic design courses, Fourshé, who has worked at Hillsdale College since 1997, served as the department's gallery manager and Web and graphic publicity manager, Art Department Chair Sam Knecht said.

"Professor Fourshé's expertise in teaching digital design and his effectiveness as a teacher resulted in increased demand for his courses and the creation of additional sections in the past several years," Knecht said in an e-mail to The Collegian.

Senior Lindsey Snelgrove said Fourshé was a unique professor. He approached her at the bookstore one day and said: "Hey, you're in my class. I'm a little nonconformist. If you try and you do your best, we'll work through it and get it the way I want. Pretty much everyone gets an A in my class because everyone tries their best," she said.

Above all else, Fourshé was dedicated to his students, especially to developing their creativity, Art Lecturer Doug Coon said.

"That's what he emphasized most," Coon said. "Even though he was teaching in a technical media, he didn't want that to overpower the creative aspect."

Senior Margaret Jago said Fourshé was one of the few people she knew of who was at the top of the design field both before and after its digital shift.

Born near Detroit, Fourshé graduated from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., before working in illustration and advertising design in Detroit for many years and serving as graphic design editor for the Detroit Free Press' Detroit Sunday supplement magazine, Knecht said.

In 1972, he became a professor of advertising design at the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit.

Jeff and Anne O'Connor, parents of junior Maggie O'Connor, both studied under Fourshé at CCS.

"He was a young, cool professor," Jeff O'Connor said. "His classes were engaging, and everybody really liked him."

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