From the Chicago Tribune, August 30, 2003
by Mindy Hogan, Tribune Staff Writer

Architect designed the Cricket Chair

Industrial designer and architect Henry P. Glass spent more than 60 years creating futuristic yet functional tables, children's furniture and chairs. But colleagues say he always believed his products could be improved, and he would tinker with them to accomplish that goal.

"The lesson he reinforced was that you never stop designing a product," said David Jameson, owner of ArchiTech, a Chicago gallery that has featured Mr. Glass' work, "He was always thinking of a better way to provide practical solutions through a product."

Mr. Glass, 92, died Wednesday, Aug. 27, at Glenbrook Hospital of heart failure.

Granted 52 patients during his career, Mr. Glass is perhaps best known for creating the colorful Swingline children's furniture in 1952 and for designing the Cricket folding chair in 1978. Industrial design scholars called him one of the industry's giants not only for his inventions and foresight, but because of his mentoring of up-and-coming members of the field.

Charles Harrison, who worked for 40 years as Sears' Senior industrial consultant, credited Mr. Glass with providing him with the support that propelled his career. Mr. Glass spent 20 years as an instructor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where Harrison was his student. "He impressed on me that I was undertaking a serious career that could affect the lives of thousands of people, " Harrison said. "He was a tough taskmaster, but he encouraged people when he recognized success."

Born in Vienna, Austria, Mr. Glass decided to study architecture upon graduating from high school and enrolled at the Technical University of Vienna in 1929. his professional start was sidetracked by the Nazi invasion of Austria inn 1938, and Mr. Glass and his wife, Eleanor, moved to New York in 1939.

Mr. Glass then designed a line of wrought-iron furniture called the "Hairpin Group" because of the shape of its steel-wire legs. Hem moved to Chicago in the early 1940's and opened his own studio, Henry P. Glass Associates, specializing in furniture.

His daughter, Anne Karin Glass, said her father never stopped trying to share his creations with others.

"He was a born teacher," she said, "He'd spread out all of his designs on our dinner table and ask us which ones we like the best, then tell us which one was the best and why."

Although he designed varied works ranging from musical instruments to hotels, Mr. Glass' Cricket folding chair, made for Brown Jordan International in 1978, may be his most innovative achievement. The outdoor chair can be folded to a thickness of one inch.

The Art Institute featured the work of Mr. Glass in its 1999 Design from the Heartland exhibit, said Annemarie van Roessel, who served as a guest curator in the Department of Architecture. She said Mr. Glass' furniture was so well received that some pieces remain on display in the American Art galleries.

A Northfield resident since 1949, Mr. Glass also was active in issues affecting Austria, serving as the longtime president of the American Friends of Austria organization. He returned to Austria about once every two years, said Eleanor, his wife of 66 years. Other survivors include a son, Peter; a sister, Teresa Biavati; and a granddaughter Visitation will be held from 2 to 6 p.m. Saturday at N.H. Scott & Hebblethwaite Funeral Home, in Glenview with a service following at 6 p.m.