Meeting Fay Jones

I first met Fay Jones in December of 1974. I had contacted him to set up a tour of his office for three classmates, Joe Kirkwood, Tom Sutton and Robert Whitten, and myself from Auburn University. We arrived later than we had hoped, having stopped in North Little Rock to see the city park gazebo that Fay had designed.

Fay came down to the office and spent several hours with us, showing countless drawings and photographs of his work. He captured each of us in his stories of Frank Lloyd Wright, Bruce Goff and others.

After a while Fay's wife, Gus called to get him to come home. The stories continued for a least another hour, with more calls from Gus. Finally, at the fifth call, which Fay did not answer, Fay realized it was far too late and that we all would be in trouble if we did not leave at once. Fay went home and we continued our architectural tour. I drove us through the cold night arriving in Bartlesville in the early morning hours at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Price Tower. The next day, not only did we see the tower, but we also toured the architecture of Bruce Goff, which is another story.

In 1975 I went to work for Bruce Goff who was living in Tyler, Texas at the time. Palmer Boggs, the structural engineer that Goff used lived in Fayetteville. So over the three and a half years that I was with Goff, there were several times that I came to Fayetteville. On each occasion, I would visit Fay and Gus.

Fay and Gus visited Atlanta in 1991 for an AIA convention. I had the pleasure of driving them to the convention and of touring Emory University with them. The Cannon Chapel by Paul Rudolph was of great interest.

We remained in contact with each other over the years. My last visit was in on the 3^rd of June 2004. We sat on the terrace, sharing stories and drinking lemonade, much as I remember doing on previous visits.

Please make plans to attend the Euine Fay Jones 2007 Kebyar Celebration!