Retired, architect never stopped living

By Bryan McKenzie

Published: September 7, 2008

He came because the area was a good place to retire, and he stayed because he loved it.

Leon Albert Gehorsam, 83, who died Aug. 28, made Charlottesville his own for two decades, studying every term at the University of Virginia and devoting time and talent to his watercolors.

Romantic decision

“I gave them a places-rated almanac that ranked Charlottesville as number one for retirees,” Jan Gehorsam, his daughter, recalled of Mr. Gehorsam and his wife, Harriet Haar Resnick Gehorsam, “At the time, Charlottesville wasn’t on their radar. He called me and said, ‘This is it.’ They visited and fell in love.”

An architect by trade, Mr. Gehorsam designed research labs for petroleum and pharmaceutical firms while rising through the corporate ranks to vice president of E.I. Corp., an architectural firm in New Jersey.

After retiring, he studied a variety of topics at UVa from biblical Hebrew and classical Greek to Greek culture, art and other subjects. Most of Charlottesville, however, knew him through is art.

“He was a wonderful artist, very detailed and into realism, mostly landscapes,” recalled Lois Kannensohn. “Every time he entered a competition, he got in. He was a great painter.”

Mrs. Kannensohn and Charlottesville artist Luther Gore both knew Mr. Gehorsam through the Central Virginia Watercolor Guild.

“He was a master draftsman, and I hope people won’t be confused by the use of that term,” Mr. Gore said. “I mean that he had a superb sense of color. His work was very creative both in concept and execution of his subject matter. He had a tremendous amount of talent.”

Love and talent

Part of that talent came from the exacting practice of architecture; he completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Columbia University in New York. Another part of that came from a love of art, generated by living within walking distance of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and attending the Manhattan High School of Music and Art, now LaGuardia High School.

“He painted all of his life but he never had much time to really devote to it until after his retirement,” Ms. Gehorsam said. “He had a room in the Charlottesville house dedicated to painting and it was the most artistically productive period of his life.”

He loved the art scene in town, gravitating to the McGuffey Art Center, his daughter said. He also loved the Jeffersonian ideal of continued, lifelong education.

“Jefferson had a wide variety of interests and so did my father,” Ms. Gehorsam said. “He felt like he had a special connection to Jefferson and to the area.”