Brigitte (Loewy) Linz, the only daughter of Erwin and Margret Loewy, was born in Paris, France, and emigrated to the United States with her family as a young child, arriving at Ellis Island in November 1940. She grew up in New York City and attended the Leonard School for Girls. At age five she began piano studies with the renowned Hedwig Rosenthal and her husband, Moritz Rosentha. Her concert career was launched with performances with the City Symphony Orchestra at age 11, and a Times Hall debut at age 14. She received a B.A degree from Barnard College, and an M.A. in elementary education from Teacher’s College of Columbia University. She taught briefly at the Nightingale Bamford School in New York. In 1960, shortly after her father’s death, she married Andrew M. Linz, a noted oral and maxillofacial surgeon.

     The death of her aunt in 1986, her father’s last remaining sibling, significantly changed the focus of her activities. It brought about the creation of the Loewy Family Foundation, of which her husband, Andrew Linz, became the first chairman. The foundation was created to honor the memory and significant contributions of her uncle, Ludwig Loewy, and her father, Erwin Loewy to the field of engineering in the 20th century. Lehigh was selected as the first and principal venue to fulfill that mission with the establishment of the Loewy Chair in Materials Forming and Processing in 1992, and the Loewy Visiting Professorship in 1999. In 2008, the first Loewy Graduate Fellow was selected. With the Loewy Chair in place, Brigitte Linz donated to Lehigh University all of her father’s personal papers, which are housed in special collections at Linderman Library. Upon the death of her husband in 2000, Brigitte Linz assumed the chairmanship of the Loewy Foundation. She continues to work toward achieving its philanthropic goals.