By the family

Aug. 4, 2024: Guy S. Longobardo of Bronxville and Amagansett, New York passed away peacefully at his Bronxville home on July 19, 2025. He was predeceased by his wife Anna. Guy is survived by his daughter Alicia (Robert Wyckoff), son Guy (Michele Epley), his grandchildren Alice, Anne (Eric Donado), Amelia and Harrison, his great-grandson Andrés Longobardo Donado, and his sister Aurelia Fasone. 

Dr. Longobardo was born in Brooklyn to Alfred and Rosaria Longobardo. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School at the top of his class and entered Columbia University at age 16, graduating in 1949 with a BS in Mechanical Engineering and receiving his MS in 1950. While a student at Columbia he was a Van der Poel Scholar, and was elected to Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society, and Sigma Xi, the national scientific research honor society. It was as a Columbia undergraduate that Guy met his future wife Anna Kazanjian, a classmate, and they had been married for 68 years at the time of her death in 2020.

After receiving his masters degree, Dr. Longobardo worked at DuPont for several years. He then returned to Columbia to complete his PhD (1962) and to serve on the faculty. In 1963, as an Assistant Professor, Dr. Longobardo began work with Columbia Medical School on the application of engineering principles to medical processes and taught a course on dynamic principles and physiological control systems to Engineering and Medical School students, physicians, physiologists and biochemists--this was Columbia’s first bioengineering course.

Dr. Longobardo left Columbia in 1965 to work at IBM, where he held key positions across a broad spectrum of fields, from pioneering work in hardware and software engineering (where he developed one of the first predictive models for medical decision making, a program that was one of the earliest uses of artificial intelligence), to new product initiatives, and product and economic forecasting.

It was during his time at Columbia that Dr. Longobardo began to work with Dr. Neil Cherniack, a start of a research partnership that spanned some 50 years and produced groundbreaking work in the bioengineering field. Together they published hundreds of articles, papers and book chapters, including seminal works on respiratory regulation and sleep apnea that are still cited in scientific journals.  

As a result of this work, in 2006 Dr. Longobardo received Columbia University’s Egleston Medal for Outstanding Engineering Achievement for "working to provide novel insights into the workings of the human body; and for having a profound international impact as a leader in the nascent field of biotechnology". 

Dr. Longobardo felt great allegiance to Columbia. He served as President of the Engineering School Alumni Association and President of The Society of Columbia Graduates, received the Crossed Hammers Award from the Engineering Alumni Association in recognition of distinguished service, and in 1989 received the Columbia University Alumni Federation Medal for Outstanding Alumni Service. 

Dr. Longobardo was also active in Bronxville, where the family had lived since 1969. He was a long-time member, and served as President, of both the Bronxville Working Gardeners and the Bronxville Field Club.

He also loved Amagansett, New York, where he and Anna built a beach house in 1965. Guy loved the hours that he spent on the beach and in the ocean with his children, nephew and nieces, and later with his grandchildren. 

Dr. Longobardo was a skilled skier and for over four decades, until he was in his mid-80s, he skied for three weeks every year with friends in the Dolomites. In 2024 Dr. Longobardo was still playing tennis weekly with his coach Neil Tarangioli and earlier this year was still working out twice weekly with his trainer Steve Lee. The family is grateful to Neil and Steve, who in addition to helping keep Guy fit and active on the tennis court and in the gym, have also been decades-long, caring, friends. The family is also grateful to Guy’s long-time Bronxville neighbor, friend and fellow Giants fan, Frank Bergold, whose friendship with Guy over the past 40 years, and especially in the years after Anna’s passing, has been kind and steadfast.

Above all, Dr. Longobardo loved his wife Anna and his family. He cherished his time with his children, his grandchildren, and his great-grandson Andy. Guy’s was a life well-lived, and he was an inspiration, and for that his family is truly grateful.

In lieu of flowers, donations to Division of Nephrology--Hypertension Center—Dr. Mark Pecker, at The New York-Presbyterian Hospital, 424 East 70^th Street, New York, NY 10021 (646-962-2605) would be greatly appreciated.