1994 Belle Kogan, FIDSA (1902-2000)
At its annual conference in Dearborn, Michigan, IDSA honored Ms. Kogan as one of the founders of the profession and the first professional female industrial designer in the US.

Ms. Kogan was born in Ilyashevka, Russia, and emigrated to the US in 1906. In 1920 she began working in her father's jewelry store while studying at Pratt Institute and the Art Students League. In 1929 she was employed by the Quaker Silver Company which trained her as a silver designer at New York University, Rhode Island School of Design and the Pforzheim, Germany Art School. She soon headed a department of 20 at Quaker in Attleboro, Massachusetts.

She opened her own New York office in 1932 with a retainer by Quaker and designed many houseware products for Libbey Glass, US Glass, Federal Glass, Towle Mfg. Co., Maryland Plastics, and Bakelite Corp. In 1937 she traveled to Europe to study design trends in Scandinavian countries, and by 1939 was championing modern design in the US.

Ms. Kogan helped form the New York Chapter of the Chicago-based American Designers Institute (founded 1938) and was its Secretary Treasurer when it re-located to New York. ADI in 1951 became the Industrial Designers Institute (IDI), and in 1956, the organization held a testimonial dinner in her honor. When IDI became IDSA in 1965, she was awarded Fellowship in the new organization.

She placed her designs and papers in the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art and closed her New York office in 1970. Under contract with KV Design, a subsidiary of the multi-company Koor Corporation, she moved to Israel with her husband, Nathan G. Watman, and set up a studio offering comprehensive design services. In 1972 she left the studio to work more leisurely as a consultant. In 1994, she was still a respected member of the Israeli community, raising consciousness to culture, visual beauty and design.

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