ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 24, 1996 TAG: 9604240039
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO NEWS OBIT
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
Well-known Blacksburg architect Leonard J. Currie, whose "Pagoda House" in town was named to the National Register of Historic Places, died early Tuesday.
Currie, 82, had a globe-trotting career. He came to Blacksburg as head of Tech's architecture department in 1956.
Harvard-educated Currie studied there with Walter Gropius, then apprenticed with Gropius and Marcel Breuer, two architects credited with founding the Bauhaus movement. In 1951, he went to Bogota, Columbia, to organize a center that examined the severe problems of housing and community development for the urban poor.
"He was very sharp," said friend and fellow architecture professor Dennis Kilper. "Very caring that things be recorded for history."
Currie's work in Blacksburg laid the foundation for the current College of Architecture and Urban Studies, and from here he went on to become founding dean of the College of Architecture and Art at the University of Illinois-Chicago Circle campus.
"I think his heart was in the right place. He came out of that generation of architects who believe they had a social calling. Len really took that to heart," said Vernon Mays, editor of Inform Magazine, published by the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects.
Currie won the Virginia chapter's prestigious William C. Noland Medal in 1993. He also was a fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Steger said.
"He had a particular fondness for students," said Julie Kane, spokeswoman for the Tech architecture college. "He came back to Blacksburg and became an integral part of the community. He often had students over to his house - a solar house - and really delighted in showing them how it works."
Currie moved back to Blacksburg upon his retirement in 1981.
He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Virginia; two daughters, Barbara Joe of Washington, D.C., and Elizabeth Baumann of Philadelphia; son Robert Currie of Delray Beach, Fla., seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
Visitors will be received at the McCoy Funeral Home in Blacksburg from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday. A graveside service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Westview Cemetery on Roanoke Street in Blacksburg. A memorial service also will be held at the War Memorial Chapel on the Tech campus at 10 a.m. Saturday.
The family asks that contributions in his memory be made to the Leonard J. Currie Fund for Excellence in Teaching at Tech's College of Architecture and Urban Studies, 202 Cowgill Hall, Blacksburg, Va. 24060.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Currie.by CNB