Reporter Volume 25, No.21 March 17, 1994

Atilla Bilgutay, UB professor of architecture
Atilla Bilgutay, 62, a member of the UB architecture faculty since
1981, died unexpectedly Feb. 18 in Clearwater, Florida of renal
failure. Bilgutay, who was on sabbatical from his university position
at the time of his death, was buried in Istanbul, Turkey. He will be
remembered at a memorial service to be held at UB at the end of April.

nther Schmitz, professor of architecture, said Bilgutay's death is a
great loss to UB, an institution to which he was very loyal. "Atilla
was an extremely fine teacher," Schmitz said. "He was dedicated,
competent in his discipline and full of enthusiasm in the classroom.
He was a pedagogue of high standards, demanding of students but
extraordinarily patient in dealing with them as individuals. His great
teaching skills helped students bridge the gap between architectural
imagination and structural reality."
 Others recalled Bilgutay as a very private person, congenial and
well-liked by his colleagues. They noted as well his devotion to his
field, pointing out that he had elected to teach in architectural
schools all his life.
A native of Istanbul, Bilgutay had a distinguished academic career in
the Middle East before moving to the United States to take up his post
at UB. Bilgutay was former dean of the School of Architecture, Middle
East Technical University (METU) in Ankara and over a 22-year period
served also as professor of structures, assistant president and as the
founding dean of two new META campuses.
From 1978 to 1980 he chaired the Department of Civil Engineering at
Garyounis University, Libya, and was the structural designer of both
the Adana campus of Ankara University (Turkey) and the Gaziantep
campus of METU. He was a consultant in the construction of campus
structures in the U.S. and Australia and in the 1960s taught briefly
at Ohio State University and Washington University, St. Louis.
He conducted research in his field at Michigan State University, the
University of Wales, the University of Wisconsin and METU. At UB he
taught a number of subjects, primarily technical courses in structural
design, construction codes and specifications.
Bilgutay held a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from Roberts
College, Istanbul, and a master's degree in civil engineering from the
University of Michigan. He also held certificates in building design
from the University of Wisconsin, MIT and the University of Beruit.
He is survived by his wife, Sevgi; two daughters, A.J. Yilmaz of
Clearwater, Florida; Ayda, of Buffalo; and a son, Arda, of Buffalo.