William S. Kearns ’62

Bill died Sept. 11, 2015, in Staunton, Va.

He was a brilliant architect who was born Jan. 1, 1941, in Chicago, home of the original skyscraper. A graduate of Lawrenceville, Bill studied history at Princeton and was a member of Triangle Club. He ate at Key and Seal and roomed with Anthony “Tony” King.

After graduation, Bill studied architecture at the University of Virginia and Columbia. He worked for luminaries such as John Carl Warnecke, Philip Johnson, Richard Meier, Gordon Bunshaft, and Peter Marino. Bill’s proudest achievement was working for Mitchell Wolfson ’63 and designing the Wolfsonian-Florida International University Museum in Miami’s South Beach neighborhood.

After an illustrious career and travel around the world, Bill retired to the historic Shenandoah Valley town of Staunton. He remained active in architecture by taking on small-scale jobs for friends and family, as well as guest lecturing at the UVA School of Architecture.

The class extends its sympathy to Bill’s twin brother Robert L. Kearns ’63, nephew John N. Kearns ’97, and the rest of his family.