In Memoriam

Louis Edwin Fry Jr. (1928-2006)

Louis Edwin Fry Jr., an architect who designed many buildings on the campuses of historically black colleges and universities, died from cancer earlier this month. He was 77 years old.

Fry was a native of Prairie View, Texas. His father also was an architect who served as chair of the architecture departments at Tuskegee Institute and Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri. The elder Fry designed the Founders Library and Douglas Hall at Howard University.

Louis Fry Jr. was a 1947 graduate of Howard University and six years later earned a second bachelor’s degree at Harvard. After graduating from Harvard he studied architecture in the Netherlands on a Fulbright scholarship. In 1962 Fry earned a master’s degree in urban design at Harvard.

The Washington, D.C.-based architectural firm Fry and Welch was founded in 1954. The firm designed the hotel and convention center at Tuskegee as well as buildings on the campuses of Morgan State University, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, and Coppin State University. The architectural firm is now under the direction of Fry’s son, Louis Fry III.