Anthony (Tony) Rudolfos Tomazinis, Professor Emeritus of City and Regional Planning in Penn’s Weitzman School of Design, died on December 11, 2020. He was 91. 

Born in Larissa, Greece in 1929, Dr. Tomazinis lived through the Nazi occupation of Greece, working for the resistance as a teenager. After the death of his father, killed by Nazis on D-Day, Dr. Tomazinis took care of his mother and sister. When he turned 18, he served the Greek Army in the Corps of Engineers. He earned a BCE in Civil Engineering at the National Technical University of Greece, then worked as an engineer in Athens. In the mid-1950s, Dr. Tomazinis came to the US and earned a master’s degree in city planning (MCP) from the Georgia Institute of Technology. In 1963, he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design with a PhD in Urban Planning. 

While a student at Penn Design, Dr. Tomazinis worked as a teaching assistant. He joined the faculty of Penn’s School of Design in 1961 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to an associate professor in 1967, and a full professor ten years later. At Penn, Dr. Tomazinis taught courses in transportation planning, infrastructure systems, strategic planning, evaluation, and international planning; at various times in the 1970s and 1980s, he also held secondary appointments in Penn's School of Engineering, in the departments of civil engineering and systems engineering.  Dr. Tomazinis served as the chair of Penn’s department of city and regional planning, and in 1998 he led the department to win the President’s Award of the American Institute of Certified Planners (Almanac April 14, 1998). 

In 1999, Dr. Tomazinis himself received the G. Holmes Perkins Award for Distinguished Teaching from the School of Design for his teaching and activism on campus (Almanac May 18/25, 1999). “He recognizes the strengths of his students, and in a thoughtful and deliberate manner acknowledges the contributions a student has made,” said the School in its announcement of the award. "The success of his former students is the real testimonial of Dr. Tomazinis’ credentials.” Dr. Tomazinis was the director of Penn’s Transportation Planning Studies Laboratory (TRANSLAB) for more than two decades.

Eugenie L. Birch, Lawrence C. Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research & Education, said Dr. Tomazinis inspired generations of city planning students. "He not only taught them about the technical aspects of the field—how to develop transportation models—but also showed them the relationships between land use, housing, environment," she said. 

Dr. Tomazinis was active in University life, serving as the chair of the Faculty Senate in 1985-86 and on several Senate and University Council committees (including on the Almanac Advisory Board and as chair of Council’s Committee of Facilities/Campus Planning). In 1983, Dr. Tomazinis wrote an impassioned letter, published in Almanac, arguing that activist causes on campus were causing harm to other marginalized groups, arguing for greater sensitivity among activist groups on campus (a concept today known as intersectionality). For several years in the early 2000s, Dr. Tomazinis was active in planning the annual Penn’s Way campaign, and he served on the board of the University Club. He retired from Penn in 2006. 

Outside of Penn, Dr. Tomazinis served as an advisor to the White House Office of Urban Affairs and a member of the Camp David Technical Mission on Energy to Egypt during the Carter Administration. He received a United Nations appointment to advise the Beijing Design Planning Institute on transportation planning and was a consultant in the design of airports in Athens and Lisbon. From 1991 to 1993, he served as the chairman of a task force appointed by the Pennsylvania Joint Commission for Efficiency of State Government Services to investigate and report on increasing efficiency and privatization in state government operations. 

An internationally acknowledged expert on transportation, Dr. Tomazinis advised the governments of Iran, India, and Taiwan on transportation and development issues. He was active in the Philadelphia Greek community and worked towards designing Technopolis, a model city of science located in Thrace, Greece, towards the end of his life.

Dr. Tomazinis is survived by his wife, JoAnn; his children Christina (Jamie), Marina (David), and Alexis; and four grandchildren. The memorial service and burial will be private. 

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