Memphis architect Roy Harrover dies

Roy Harrover, the Yale-educated architect who designed iconic modern Memphis buildings including Mud Island, the Commerce Square skyscraper, Memphis College of Art and the city's international airport, died recently. He was 88.

He had been ill for several months with emphysema and passed away at home on Tuesday, said his wife of 43 years, Stephanie Eggleston Harrover.

He designed large numbers of buildings in Memphis and elsewhere, including the U.S. embassy in Lagos, Nigeria, she said. She said an underlying style of thinking tied together his building designs.

"I think a very logical, clean look that works and is also beautiful," she said. "Usually kind of pure. He let the lines of design speak for him rather than using frou-frou decorations. He just felt that the structure was so important."

She recalled seeing him thinking through architectural problems at home in their den.

"And I remember he sat in his Eames chair with his legs up and kind of would steeple his fingers together and get a faraway look. ... He wasn't even drawing it or writing it down. He was doing it in his head."

He'd do the same when he was puzzling out other problems — like the best way to pursue one of his hobbies, restoring old automobiles.

"He was such a complex man," she said. "Probably a genius. Certainly brilliant. A very brilliant, thoughtful, sensitive man who he hardly ever spoke without thinking first. And his thoughts were so deep and wide."

He loved architecture but had many other interests. "I could ask him any question about music, art, culture, history. And he always knew the answer."

He was close friends with her brother, the famed photographer William Eggleston. And he also took time to mentor younger architects, said his wife, 73.

Harrover was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1928 and later moved to Nashville with his mother after his parents divorced, according to a 2011 profile in Memphis magazine. He served in the Marine Corps during World War II and was stationed in North Carolina. The G.I. Bill later helped him study at Yale, where he was a member of the fencing team.

He landed in Memphis and worked with an architect named Bill Mann. In the 1950s, their firm won a competition to design a new building in Overton Park for what was then known as the Memphis Academy of Arts, now Memphis College of Art.

"It was really a very unusual design, particularly the concrete screens," Harrover told the magazine. "But it would not have worked in an urban setting, squeezed between other buildings. It's really a piece of sculpture."

Many other projects followed, including the airport, dedicated in 1963. The magazine noted that at the opening ceremony, Adlai Stevenson, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, called it "an architectural masterpiece."

"I have seen most of the metropolitan airports in the world, and I have seen none handsomer."

In the late 1970s, Harrover designed Mud Island, the Downtown park by the river.  "We traveled on the river as families quite a bit," said one of his friends, Ham Smythe III, age 83. "And through that, I think he was able to get the idea for it. And he was able to sell the City Council on it. It was a giant project."

He recalled how Harrover used Styrofoam molds and poured concrete to create the park's scale model of the Mississippi River. He also designed the park's other major facilities, including its amphitheater and museum. Smythe described his friend as brilliant and introverted.

Smythe's son Ham Smythe IV, age 57, said Harrover's modern style inspired others. "His greatest impact may be all the architects he influenced."

Harrover summed up his career in the magazine interview: "I'm really proud that I had so many talented people work for me, many of whom became practicing architects themselves. We sure did a lot of nice work."

In addition to his wife, Harrover leaves his daughter Robin, son Bruce (Erica) and grandson Alex Harrover, as well as his step-children Stephen Flagler (Christy) and family, and Holly Dobbs (Jimmy) and family.

Visitation will be held 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, December 20, at Canale Funeral Directors, 2700 Union Ave. Extended.

The funeral service is private.

In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting donations to Memphis College of Art, The First Unitarian Church of Memphis or a charity of the donor's choice.

Harrover was a member of The First Unitarian Church of Memphis, also called the Church of the River, and will buried in its memorial garden by the Mississippi, his wife said.

He designed the church building.