IN MEMORIAM
David A. Dillon, Architecture Critic
(reprinted from the Worcester Telegram & Gazette) Other obituaries for Mr. Dillon, including more information about his life and career, may be found in the Dallas Morning News, and artforum.)
David A. Dillon died Thursday, June 3, 2010, of cardiac arrest at his home in Amherst, MA.
Born August 24, 1941, in Fitchburg, MA, Mr. Dillon, 68, graduated from Fitchburg High School and Boston College before earning master's and doctoral degrees from Harvard University in literature. On June 5, 1971, he married Sally Hall, a fiber artist who had also grown up in Fitchburg. After receiving his doctorate, he began a long and distinguished career as a journalist and educator in that city and most recently in Amherst, MA. Specializing in Renaissance literature and writing, he taught at Southern Methodist University in Dallas as an assistant professor of English from 1969 until 1976. His love of writing, art, and architecture led him to shift from the academy to journalism. After a period of freelance writing and employment as a staff writer at D Magazine, in 1981 he joined the staff of the Dallas Morning News, where he worked until 2006, most prominently as the full-time architecture critic. In that position, David Dillon won acclaim for his reviews and critiques of new civic buildings and of city development plans or land use projects. In 1986 he was selected as a Loeb Fellow at Harvard's Graduate School of Design and was nominated in multiple years for a Pulitzer Prize in criticism. Among his many awards were those from The Associated Press, the Dallas Press Club, and the Texas Society of Architects. He has published a dozen books on architecture, written hundreds of articles for such publications as the Harvard Design Review and Architectural Record, and frequently served as a juror on architecture and design competitions. His interest in large scale architectural and planning projects led to his being appointed as author of Extending the Legacy, the new plan for Washington, DC, as well as for the White House, President's Park, and the World War II memorial.
From 1995 Mr. Dillon split his time between Dallas, TX, and Amherst, MA, where he settled permanently with his family after retiring from the Dallas Morning News. In recent years he has taught courses in writing and architecture at both the University of Massachusetts and at Amherst College, rediscovering his initial love of teaching from the beginning of his career.
Apart from architecture, Mr. Dillon was an avid Boston Red Sox and Boston Bruins fan and relished daily jogs with his dog, Chester. A connoisseur of fine food and wines, he loved to travel abroad and to relax at the rustic cottage his family owned on Maine's Westport Island.
Mr. Dillon is survived by his wife, Sally, a fiber artist; son Christopher, Providence, R.I.; daughter Catherine, Holyoke, MA; and his mother-in-law, Constance Hall, Fitchburg, MA. Services will be held Tuesday, June 8, at 10:00 A.M. at the Douglass Funeral Services in Amherst, MA.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to one of the following charities: the Gladney Center for Adoption, the Lupus Foundation of America or the Friends of the Fitchburg (MA) Public Library. Obituary and register at Douglass Funeral Home

NANCY'S NEW SHOES

Nancy Jenner, of the Boston Society of Architects, is soon going to be the Director of Communications and Strategic Partnerships with the North Bennet Street School. Her first heads-up to the WMAIA is notification of a summer Timber Frame Construction and Restoration course at the museum’s pastoral Mount Lebanon Shaker Village site. If a city setting is more your style, choose from a diverse selection of summer workshops in North Bennet Street School's North End campus. Details for both courses are at http://www.nbss.org/workshops/schedule.asp.

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