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Edward Divine White
Prominent Denver architect Edward D. White, Jr has died at the age of 92. Ed, along with his sister Jean and brother Frank, were raised in Denver’s Montclair neighborhood by their parents, Ed and Evelyn White, and their maternal grandparents, Rev. Franklin and Jessie Estabrook. Ed attended Montclair Elementary School, Smiley Junior High School, and East High School, to which he and his siblings made the daily Colfax Avenue trolley commute. Ed excelled at academics and was a state-ranked competitive swimmer. He received a National Honor Scholarship from Columbia University where he enrolled at age 17. Before completing his freshman year at Columbia, World War II intervened and Ed enlisted in the U.S. Navy. In 1943, Ed went from the V-12 Navy College Training Program at Cornell to Midshipmen's School at Northwestern to the Naval Oriental Language School at the University of Colorado. He served in the Far Eastern Section of Naval Intelligence, evaluating classified Japanese documents. After the war he completed his studies at Columbia and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1948 and was awarded a University of Denver Social Science Foundation Grant for study in France; he enrolled at the Université Paris Sorbonne, where he took literature courses and focused on his interest in architecture. After completing his studies he returned to Columbia and enrolled in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and graduated with honors as the 1955 Recipient of Columbia's Hirsch Memorial Prize. As part of the post-war Columbia scene, Ed was an integral part of the newly developing Beat Generation and became lifelong friends with author Jack Kerouac. Ed appears in Kerouac's “On the Road” as the character Tim Gray; in “Visions of Cody” as Ed Gray; and in “Book of Dreams” as Al Green and Guy Green. The “Road" began with Kerouac’s first trip west to Denver, at Ed's invitation, in the summer of 1947. White and Kerouac spent most of their time together in New York, between 1946 and 1955, when Ed was completing his undergraduate and architectural degrees at Columbia. Although they exchanged letters and telephone calls in subsequent years, their last reunion was in New York in 1964, a memorable evening of stories and jazz. That year Ed designed a mountain hideaway for Kerouac -- a project much discussed but never built. Kerouac's "word sketches" date from that period when Ed often carried a small sketchbook and suggested the same approach to Kerouac for recording his observations in words. In a letter dated April 28, 1957, Kerouac wrote to White: “By the way, you started whole new movement of American literature (spontaneous prose and poetry) when in that Chinese restaurant on 125th Street one night you told me to start SKETCHING in the streets...” Ed returned to Denver in 1955 and practiced architecture until 1995. Ed’s forty-year career focused on contemporary architecture and historic preservation. Initially he worked for Fisher, Fisher & Davis Architects. In 1960, he formed a new architecture firm, Hornbein & White Architects. One of their early projects was the iconic Boettcher Memorial Tropical Conservatory at the Denver Botanic Gardens, designated a Denver Landmark by the City and County of Denver and celebrating its 50th Anniversary this year. Hornbein & White Architects dissolved in 1975, and for the next 20 years Ed continued his work, with a focus on restoration and preservation, as Edward D. White, Jr. AIA. His other notable architectural design works include structures at the University of Colorado Medical Center, Kent Denver Country Day School, Colorado Women's College and Graland Country Day School (for which he was awarded a Design Citation Award from the American Institute of Architects). Ed was among a small group of architects whose efforts led to the establishment of the Denver Landmark Preservation Commission. He was appointed to the Commission in 1969 by Denver Mayor William McNichols and was re-appointed by Mayors Pena and Webb, serving a total of ten terms on the Commission (1969–1990), four of those terms as its Chairman. His restoration and preservation projects included such Colorado landmarks as the U.S. Post Office and Customs House in Denver, Ninth Street Park in the Auraria Higher Education Center, Four Mile House in Denver's Four Mile Historic Park, Central City Opera House, Lace House in Black Hawk, Master Plan for the Central City Historic District, 15 historic structures at the Twin Lakes and Interlaken Historic Districts for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Colorado Governor's Residence at the Boettcher Mansion, Molly Brown House, Carnegie Library for the Boulder Public Library Foundation, and the Curry-Chukovich House (also known as the Gerash Building). Ed made major contributions while serving on the Board of Directors of Colorado Historical Foundation, Historic Denver, Inc. (of which he was a founding board member), Four Mile Historic Park, Little Kingdom Foundation, and Central City Opera Association. In 1968, The Colorado Chapter of the American Institute of Architects named Ed as Colorado’s State Preservation Officer. In 2000, Mayor Wellington Webb declared September 14th “Edward D. White, Jr. Day” in recognition of his grassroots work in historic preservation that had a major impact on preserving for the future the original heart of the city of Denver. In 2004, Ed was inducted into the College of Fellows, American Institute of Architects, in recognition of his work in Historic Preservation. In 2010, he was honored with the Dana Crawford Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation by Colorado Preservation, Inc. Of particular enjoyment for Ed was his participation at the Cactus Club, both in the luncheon discussions as well as his unofficial role as the club historian and author of the monthly “Snippets from our Prickly Past.” Ed was best known among friends and family for his exceptional, understated, and sometimes wry wit, as well as his welcoming and friendly disposition. Even as his memories continued to fade, his great spirit, humour and outlook brought joy to those around him including the residents and caring staff of his last 6 years at the Brookdale Meridian. Ed is survived by his wife of over 40 years, Ann White, his son and daughter-in-law, Ted and Nancy White, their children, Catherine, Samuel, and Anne, and his son and son-in-law, Jamie White and Andrew Sirotnak, MD. He is also survived by his step-children -- Carol Patterson, Jenny and Joe Freeman, and Mark and Kristen Sink -- and by his step-grandchildren. Ed was very fond of his family, and remained a good-natured and cheerful participant in life to the end. Memorial contributions may be made to the Denver Botanic Gardens and Historic Denver, Inc.February 2, 1925 - April 29, 201702/02/192504/29/2017
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