Moshe Meir “Maury” Lipowich, 84, died May 5, 2017.
Mr. Lipowich was born in Poland and was one of the 1,200 Yaldai Tehran (Children of Tehran), a group of orphans brought to Palestine by way of Tehran during World War II. He was raised in Kfar Hanoar Hadati, a children’s village in Israel. After serving in the Israeli army as a sergeant major, he came to the United States in 1956. He earned a degree in architecture from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He married Shelley Ann Ruben in 1959. Mr. Lipowich worked with two architecture firms, Minoru Yamasaki Associates, Inc., and Harry Weese & Assoc., before founding Maury M. Lipowich and Assoc., an architecture firm in Chicago. He designed office buildings, temples, schools, banks and custom residences. He later founded Birchwood Development Corporation and built homes on Chicago’s North Shore before retiring to Arizona. He was known for creating walking sticks, menorahs and sculptures out of dried saguaro cactus. Mr. Lipowich was a lifelong supporter of Israel and Jewish causes.
Survivors include his wife, Shelley Ann Lipowich; son, Alex (Dina) Lipowich of Chicago; daughter, Jennie Lipowich (Stuart) Starr of San Diego; sisters, Esther Slai and Tzipora Uffenheimer of Israel; and four grandchildren.
Services were held at Evergreen Mortuary with Cantor Avi Alpert of Congregation Bet Shalom officiating, followed by interment in the B’nai B’rith section of Evergreen Cemetery.
