John G. Williams, Founder of School of Architecture, Dies at 92

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — John Gilbert Williams, professor emeritus of architecture and founder of the architecture program at the University of Arkansas, died at home on Friday, April 11. Williams came to the University of Arkansas in 1946, when a post-war housing shortage created a demand for architects. Under his leadership, the program grew from two architecture courses offered within the College of Engineering into a school offering the only accredited program in architecture in the state.

“John Williams developed generations of students into designers, and worked tirelessly to promote the school and the profession within the state,” said Jeff Shannon, dean of the School of Architecture and a former student of Williams. “He was well-loved by many, and will be greatly missed.”

“He was a great teacher, and our mentor and friend,” said Bob Laser, one of Williams’ first students. “All five of us who graduated in the first class revered him.”

Born April 30, 1915, in Van Buren, Ark., Williams studied engineering at Arkansas Polytechnic College and earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Oklahoma State University in 1940. He subsequently taught at Arkansas Tech and Oklahoma State University before coming to the University of Arkansas, where he chaired the department of architecture for 20 years.

Williams embraced new trends in architecture and nurtured and hired talents such as Fay Jones, who achieved international prominence for his chapel and residential designs. As part of his effort to win accreditation for the architecture program, Williams established an active lecture series that brought internationally renowned architects, landscape architects and engineers to campus. Frank Lloyd Wright, whose Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pa., inspired Williams’ interest in modern architecture, visited in 1958, shortly before his death in 1959. Williams also arranged for Richard Neutra, Bruce Goff, Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, Buckminster Fuller and Edward Durell Stone to lecture and critique student and faculty work.

Williams was licensed to practice architecture and landscape architecture in Arkansas. He designed several residences that were influenced by Wright’s organic style of architecture, including his own home, which opens to wooded views west of campus. The Clack/Kellogg house, which Williams designed in 1954, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2006.

Williams chronicled the early years of the architecture program in his 1984 book The Curious and the Beautiful: A Memoir History of the Architecture Program at the University of Arkansas. Though he retired as a professor emeritus in 1985, he was a frequent visitor on campus, where he continued to research and write a book on the principle of organic unity as it applies to architectural design. He won numerous honors from the university, including the University of Arkansas Alumni Association Distinguished Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching (1983), the Distinguished Service Award from the School of Architecture (2001), and an honorary doctorate (1998). In 1989, the School of Architecture established the John G. Williams Professorship in Architecture, which has brought luminaries such as Peter Eisenman, Edward Durell Stone Jr. and Brian MacKay-Lyons to campus for a semester to teach and inspire students and faculty.

National honors include the Distinguished Professor Award from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (1988) and the Pioneer Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects (2002).

Williams was active in the American Institute of Architects, serving on numerous committees and as chair of the northwest section of the state chapter. He was inducted into the College of Fellows of the AIA in 1985 and awarded the Fay Jones Gold Medal from the Arkansas chapter of the AIA in 2004.

Thad Kelly, 2008 president of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, said: “John G. Williams was a vibrant force in the architectural profession. The whole state is deeply indebted to John for his tireless devotion to the practice and practitioners of architecture in Arkansas.”

Williams’ wife Faye died in 2003. He is survived by his daughter, Diana Sue Hein of New York City. Visitation will be held from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, April 13, at Moore’s Chapel in Fayetteville and graveside services will be held at 3 p.m. at Fairview Cemetery in Van Buren, Ark. A memorial service is planned at a later date. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that gifts be made in Williams’ memory to the John G. Williams Traveling Scholarship, sent to the University of Arkansas School of Architecture care of Karen Stair at 120 Vol Walker Hall, Fayetteville, Ark., 72701 or to the Washington Regional Hospice, sent care of Valarie Lima at 34 W. Colt Square, Suite 1, Fayetteville, Ark., 72703.