39 and the practice grew to eight people. We did the kinds of projects a small firm would do. Lander being what it is, we worked all over the state, which was a challenge with a small family. I enjoyed it, but when you are a principal in a small firm, it’s not a 40-hour work week, and there is a lot of time on the road and away from home. I was enjoying it, but it created some hardships. When did you decide to become a professor? I was offered a university position. My wife thought that was a great opportunity because she hadn’t finished her degree as an elementary music teacher, and she wanted to. It was also a chance to slow things down, and I thought it was worth testing out what it would be like to be an academic. I sold my part of the practice and became an assistant professor at the University of Wyoming. I meant to go for two years and then go back into practice, but I enjoyed teaching. The environment in the late 1970s and early 1980s had changed enough that I kept my license but did not jump back into practice. I spent 18 years moving up the ranks, earned a doctorate and then went into administration and the community college system. My doctorate focused on community colleges. I was in a cohort program where most of the work was during the summer. I became a dean at Santa Rosa Junior College in California. I was an administrator for five years. We were comfortable in California, but our family was in Wyoming, and my wife said, “Let’s go back.” That was 2005. I directed the community college system in Wyoming as a cabinet-level administrator until I retired from that work in 2018. Then we moved back to Fort Collins after being away for 50 years. Please tell us about your time teaching at the University of Wyoming and Loyola University of Chicago, Rome Center. The courses I taught at the University of Wyoming covered the spectrum of architectural engineering, engineering sciences, specifications, estimating and traditional engineering. I spent 10 years as a full professor. My focus as an architect was on designing passive solar residences. My first sabbatical, and my first one abroad, was in 1990. I received a fellowship from a foundation that supported my application to be a 1990 ICCROM delegate from the U.S. for six months. ICCROM is the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, and its headquarters are in Rome. It is part of UNESCO, although that isn’t reflected in the title. The program had delegates from 23 countries. Although I had done a historic structures assessment on a territorial penitentiary, my work at ICCROM really gave me a stimulus to do more. I became fully involved in all aspects of preservation and started doing preservation work in earnest. For my second sabbatical, I taught a onesemester survey course in architectural history about the Italian Renaissance at the Loyola University of Chicago, Rome Center. While there, I sometimes consulted with a colleague at the University of Rome. We discussed historic preservation and his then-ongoing work at the Domus Aurea in Rome. After returning to the U.S., I worked with a colleague in American Studies to start a master’s program in historic preservation, did a lot of consulting work in preservation, and taught graduate courses about preservation, architectural history and other subjects. What was it like to be a professor? What were your most important accomplishments? My most significant accomplishments were the chances to meet former students and see how their successes have played out. I had a little bit to do with that. I created some opportunities, helped them find positions, helped them through some courses, and told some students, “You aren’t meant to be an engineer; you should be an architect.” Some of them took my advice and became architects. When I came to the University of Wyoming in 1982, our program was an option in engineering. I worked hard for several years with the national society of architectural engineers, the architectural engineering group and the accreditation board for engineering and technology to get our program independently accredited as a pure program in architectural engineering instead of a subset program. I had to do a lot of work writing the curriculum for review and approval. As a result, students could take courses in the area that would benefit them instead of taking unnecessary ancillary courses. You can’t be a generalist. As an architectural engineer, you must be fluent in the building’s systems. That is easily a four-year program because buildings are extraordinarily complex. Being a design professional with the expertise to design those systems requires a lot of specialized coursework. As the program grew, it became one of the largest programs in engineering. Students can now study structural systems, electrical systems, HVAC, fire suppression and communications. If you were mentoring a young architect, what advice would you give them? I am not an expert in the long-term progression of being a design professional. My predominant role was as an academic. That said, here is my advice: 1. Listen for guidance and ideas from wherever it comes, no matter the source. You can learn from practitioners and people who have been at it a while or people outside the profession. Don’t think you are the sole source of wisdom when working on something as complicated as a building. 2. Don’t feel frozen in a position. Explore your passion. Some ideas come to pass, and some don’t, but don’t put anything out of your head that you would like to do, even if you are not sure you can pull it off. CONTINUED ON PAGE 40
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