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Back from Vacation

I’m playing catch-up after a week in Arkansas. I find the Arkansas Ozarks, where I lived until age 23 in Fayetteville, very relaxing. What I enjoy most are the warm summer nights where you can sit on the veranda until midnight as the temperature hovers between 70 and 85 degrees. At my home in Richmond, the temperature drops to 58 degrees when the sun goes down. There is much advantage in our natural air conditioning, but those warm summer nights are unforgettable.

 

My graduating class at the University of Arkansas School of Architecture consisted of only seventeen individuals. Three are deceased, leaving only fifteen. Twelve of us convened for a three-day 40th reunion along with three former professors, Herb Fowler, Ernie Jacks, and Cy Sutherland. Missing was the most famous of our professors, Fay Jones, who died in 2004 (see Fay Jones, The Passing of an Architectural Legend, September 6, 2004).

 

In addition to reminiscing with a bunch of old architects, I floated the Buffalo National River with my son Andrew on Monday and did some fishing. Arkansas has several national parks, including the Buffalo National River and Central High School, which is celebrating in September the 50th anniversary of its federally enforced desegregation. I recall, incidentally, that my school district in Fayetteville was the first in Arkansas to integrate -- voluntarily. Nancy Rousseau, the wife of one of my architecture classmates, Steve Rousseau, is principal of Central High, which is ranked 26th in the nation, an extraordinary achievement for an inner city public high school with a racially, ethnically and economically diverse student population. Nancy could probably bring some wisdom to the WCCUSD. When Richmond’s Maritime Child Care Center is rehabilitated and completed as the home of the Richmond Childrens’ Foundation College Prep Charter School, it will be only the second public school in the country that is actually part of a national park.

 

My younger brother, Jack Butt, and his family still live in Fayetteville, as do a couple of cousins and my daughter-in-law’s family, the Martins. Jack arranged the incredible Grand Canyon rafting trip we took in June (A Grand Adventure, June 21, 2007).

 

When we are in Fayetteville, we are able to stay at Deepwood House, an isolated oasis on the outskirts of Fayetteville that was designed by and is the former home of my former professor Herb Fowler. If you ever find yourself in northwest Arkansas, be sure to stay at Deepwood.