Bill N. Lacy (April 16, 1933 – August 25, 2020) was an

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, the president of the

Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

, and the president of the

State University of New York at Purchase The State University of New York at Purchase (commonly Purchase College or SUNY Purchase) is a public liberal arts college in Purchase, New York. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) system. It was fo ...

Early life

Lacy was born near

Kingston, Oklahoma Kingston is a town in Marshall County, Oklahoma, United States, in the central southern portion of the state close to the border. The population was 1,601 at the 2010 census. Geography Kingston is located at (34.000146, -96.721133). According ...

and was educated in

Broken Bow, Oklahoma Broken Bow is a city in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 4,120 at the 2010 census. It is named after Broken Bow, Nebraska, the former hometown of the city's founders, the Dierks brothers. Other Dierks-associate ...

. He completed a B.A. in

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

. Following military service, he returned to Oklahoma State and completed a master's degree in architecture in 1958. He and his wife Jane had five children together.

Career

Following the completion of his master's, Lacy worked with Bill Caudill's architectural firm in

Houston, Texas Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 in ...

. When Caudill became a dean at

Rice University William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...

, he invited Lacy to join him as an associate dean there. In 1965, Lacy became the founding dean of the School of

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

at the

University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (officially The University of Tennessee, Knoxville; or UT Knoxville; UTK; or UT) is a public land-grant research university in Knoxville, Tennessee. Founded in 1794, two years before Tennessee became the 16th state, ...

. He served as the director of the Architecture and Design program of the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

from 1971 to 1977. His time as Cooper Union's president was marred by controversy. Shortly after his term began in 1980, he declared that the faculty union (the Cooper Union Federation of College Teachers, or CUFCT) would no longer be recognized, following the Yeshiva decision. Plans for his inauguration had to be changed when the union declared that they would boycott and picket the ceremony, and three of the four scheduled speakers (

Daniel Patrick Moynihan Daniel Patrick Moynihan (March 16, 1927 – March 26, 2003) was an American politician, diplomat and sociologist. A member of the Democratic Party, he represented New York in the United States Senate from 1977 until 2001 and served as an ...

Robert Motherwell Robert Motherwell (January 24, 1915 – July 16, 1991) was an American Abstract Expressionism, abstract expressionist Painting, painter, printmaker, and editor of ''The Dada Painters and Poets: an Anthology''. He was one of the youngest of th ...

, and

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the pos ...

) refused to cross the picket line. In 1985, the NLRB overturned Lacy's decision and ordered that the CUFCT be recognized by Cooper Union, finding that the faculty lacked "substantial input into nonacademic matters...decisions on the hiring, promotion, tenure, and retention of teaching staff are frequently made in the absence of faculty recommendations, and when they are made following faculty recommendations, those recommendations are frequently rejected." Following his time at Cooper Union (1980-1987), Lacy served as the Executive Director of the

Pritzker Architecture Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...

from 1988 through 2005, and as president of the

from 1993 to 2001. His appointment as the SUNY-Purchase president was also controversial, as its College Council bypassed the presidential search committee and appointed Lacy, the search committee's second choice, instead of

Stanley Fish Stanley Eugene Fish (born April 19, 1938) is an American literary theorist, legal scholar, author and public intellectual. He is currently the Floersheimer Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at Yeshiva University's Benjamin N. Cardozo Scho ...

, who was the committee's first choice, without first consulting with the committee. During his time at Cooper Union, Lacy began a career as an architectural consultant and continued working in the field for the rest of his career, especially following his time at SUNY-Purchase. In 2003, Lacy moved to

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

as a consulting architect for the

McNay Art Museum The McNay Art Museum, founded in 1954 in San Antonio, is the first modern art museum in the U.S. state of Texas. The museum was created by Marion Koogler McNay's original bequest of most of her fortune, her important art collection and her 24-roo ...

. He resided in San Antonio until his death in 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lacy, Bill N. 1933 births 2020 deaths Presidents of campuses of the State University of New York Presidents of Cooper Union