Eugene “Jeep” Dehnert 1927-2024 TRIBUTE WRITTEN BY BRUCE DEHNERT, JEEP’S SON The following excerpt is from a homeowner’s unsolicited 1993 letter after receiving drawings of their house that were designed by Eugene “Jeep” Dehnert in the early 1950s in Billings, Montana. As per the practice of architecture, the letter’s author continued: “… we marveled at the level of detail and foresight shown. Imagine insulated walls and combustion air for the fireplace in a time of energy glut. We do, however, have a question. What was the exhaust fan in the dining room for? We speculate there was a cigar smoker in the family. “The initial joy in the creative process has become such a muddled, compromised product that it is difficult to consider the profession as leaders of anything. Hopefully, there are those who will continue to push the edges and create a built environment of enduring beauty for all to enjoy.” It’s certain that although the letter was intended as a compliment, its brusque critique of the current state of the “profession” would be challenged by Jeep whenever the opportunity arrived at his drawing table during an abundant career spanning 61 years. Born in Lewistown, Montana, his parents, Gus and Amy, moved him and his sister, Fran, to Hardin, Montana, which lies on the boundary of the Crow (Apsaalooke) Reservation. While his mother was a school teacher, Jeep was inspired towards architecture by his father, who worked at a lumber store and was also a skilled carpenter and woodworker. As a youngster, Jeep became passionate about music and played drums for jazz and marching bands throughout high school, college and with the United States Army Band. In one favorite story from high school, Jeep showed up ready to play with the band at the football game and ended up being a last-minute recruit to play on the football team (Hardin and other small, rural towns fielded six players). He played “somewhere” on both defensive and offensive lines for the Hardin Bulldogs until the final buzzer. The Bulldogs lost. When asked how he remembered feeling, Jeep always answered, “Pretty much slaughtered, so I stuck to the drums.” This past October, no one in Jeep’s family had the heart to tell him that his Bulldogs went 0-9 for the season. This included a failed Friday night’s squeaker against the Sidney Eagles, his beloved wife of 73 years, Charlotte Haugen’s high school alma mater. After graduating with a B.S. in architectural engineering from Montana State College in 1951, with the onset of the Korean War, Jeep was recalled to the U.S. Army at Fort Ord in California and, soon afterward, deployed to Tokyo, Japan. There, he began his career in the Army’s Design Division of the Corps of Engineers. Attached to the United Nations headquarters, he became a member of the Far East Society of Architects. Both he and Charlotte were riveted by the Japanese people and their culture and thus began an enchantment that would endure the rest of their lives. As part of this sustained bond, the couple returned to Japan numerous times and hosted foreign exchange students. Japanese aesthetics were never too far from Jeep’s own sensibilities in design. Following Jeep’s discharge from the Army in 1953, he and Charlotte moved to Billings, Montana, where he apprenticed under the influential tutelage of architects Nordquist and Sundell, two disciples of Frank Lloyd Wright. During his tenure with their firm, Jeep earned his NCARB and Montana licenses and gained membership in the AIA. Dehnert credited Nordquist and Sundell with providing him the conceptual tools and professional acumen with which to develop his own “voice” and practice. An inkling of that voice was sparked by the firm’s interest in modernist design aesthetics, utilizing new approaches to construction (modular concrete) and incorporating new developments in materials. In 1960, Cornell-educated architect Bob Corbett placed an ad for a draftsman to join his “firm of one” in Wyoming. Although Jeep’s passion was design, he was anxious to get his independent career going. On a hunch, he answered Corbett’s ad. During a hastily arranged interview in Worland, Wyoming, the two architects agreed that Jeep would concentrate on working drawings for one year, and if, at the end of that year, the two still tolerated one another, they would form a partnership. Six months into the agreement, Corbett/Dehnert Associates was established, and they moved their nascent practice to an office in Lander, Wyoming. One of the firm’s first commissions was Lander’s Northside Grade School. Their design was an innovative riff on corrugated steel ranch buildings dotting the West. The school’s classroom wings, like spokes on a wheel, jutted outward from a large, tubular sunken gymnasium that also served as an assembly hall. Its expansive ceiling was treated with a soft yellow, quilt-like spray insulation, providing an interesting contrast with the building’s industrial exterior. During the mid-1960s, the firm was commissioned for a growing number of projects, Jeep became president of the Wyoming State Chapter of the AIA and served as a member of the NCARB committee for preparation of the National Exam. In 1965, Corbett/Dehnert Associates was hired by Bay Area Radio Executive Paul McCollister to create the Master Plan and to design numerous base buildings for the world-renowned Jackson Hole Ski Area. Because of the scale of the project, Corbett would open a second office in Jackson, and Jeep ran the one in Lander. A short time later, they provided design for the first buildings at Targhee Ski Area outside Driggs, Idaho. IN MEMORIAM 40 WYOMING ARCHITECTURE .24 | www.aia-wyoming.org
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