Maurice Grossman

12:00 am . Patty Machelor Arizona Daily Star 'Renaissance man' Maurice Grossman, 82, dies after surgery Maurice Grossman, a father, craftsman, activist and University of Arizona professor emeritus, died Thursday night of complications following heart surgery. He was 82. Grossman was well-known in Tucson not only for his pottery, for which he has been recognized internationally, but also for his dedication to human rights and the Democratic Party. "Calling him a Renaissance man isn't a cliché. He really was that kind of guy," said Doug Noffsinger, a longtime friend and board member of the Alliance Fund, a community-grants program Grossman helped found. "He's probably registered more people to vote in Pima County than any other living person," he said. "And he always did that in outfits like an Uncle Sam hat, or a red, white and blue boa." Grossman was born in Detroit and grew up in a poor Jewish family. He attended Wayne State University and Ohio State University before moving to Tucson to teach in 1955, said Lauren Grossman. Her father started the university's ceramics program in 1956 and was a UA art professor for about 35 years. Grossman came out as a gay man after the death of his wife. "Gay rights were very important to him, as were human-rights issues in general," Lauren Grossman said. Stephen Christopher Grossman said his father was spiritually centered. He taught Buddhist meditation and "always sought to raise up his fellow man and fellow woman." "He was a man of great generosity of spirit, and he raised himself up from very poor circumstances. And the opportunities that he created for himself, and the wonder that he attained and enjoyed in life, he wanted for everyone," said Stephen Grossman. Early in his career, Grossman studied in Japan as a Fulbright scholar. Grossman also won the UA's Creative Teaching Award and received a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1986. Stephen Grossman, then a fledgling builder, used the money to construct a studio in his father's backyard. Art events around Tucson always included Grossman, said John Nullity, retail manager with Tucson Museum of Art. "He always walked in with that big smile," he said. "He will just be so deeply missed." Longtime friends Marcy and Robert Wrenn traveled with Grossman and his wife to Portugal, Greece and Italy. "He went to every cathedral and every church," Marcy Wrenn said. "He knew the history of so much art that he could fill you in on all the details and all the work that was there." Robert Wrenn, a psychology professor emeritus, said his friend was a great storyteller who loved to laugh. "He walked into the room and everybody kind of lightened up because he had this big heart and he always had an optimistic view on things," he said. Paul Durham, co-chair of the Southern Arizona Stonewall Democrats, said it was difficult to go anywhere with Grossman without running into someone who knew him. "He was just an absolutely remarkable, unique, irreplaceable person." Grossman is survived by his son and daughter, both of Seattle. His wife, Marilyn Gracey Grossman, died in 1979, and his oldest child, Barbara Jean Grossman, died of cancer the same year. Contact reporter Patty Machelor at 520-235-0308