On February 11, 2022 beloved and respected benefactor and trailblazing architect Frances M. Shloss died at 98 in Beverly Hills, California.

Shloss received her architecture degree from what was then called the Cornell College of Architecture, a five-year program she completed in three years during WWII. She went on to make drawings for Navy battleships and worked on design plans for some of the first American shopping malls. Her later philanthropic contributions to the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP) included support for Sibley Hall beautification, the Mui Ho Fine Arts Library construction, a food truck at AAP named in her honor, and the creation of the Frances Shloss studio space on the third floor of East Sibley Hall.

Born on June 8, 1923, Shloss's youthful interest in drawing and watercolor painting continued throughout her life. She was accepted to Cornell as an architecture student in 1941 and learned the practice of drawing plans with a pencil, paper, T-square, and triangles, though according to a profile in the AAP Alumni Archive, Shloss's favorite classes were art studios — "anything that had to do with painting or drawing," she said. She continued to take painting classes late in life.

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