Bond, J. Max, Jr.

James Max Bond, Sr. and Ruth Elizabeth Clement Bond, husband and wife, both hailed from prominent and well-educated African-American families.

J. Max Bond, Sr., State Department and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) official and president of the University of Liberia, was born in Nashville, Tennessee on September 15, 1902. His father, James M. Bond (1863-1929), a Congressional Minister and community leader served as the first director of the Kentucky Commission on Interracial Cooperation. After graduating from the Oberlin College Theological Seminary in 1893, James Bond married Jane A. Browne, who was also a graduate of Oberlin. Together they had six children, including Max Sr.

Ruth Elizabeth Clement was born in Louisville, Kentucky on May 22, 1904. Her father, George C. Clement was a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; in 1946 her mother, Emma Clarissa Williams Clement, became the first African-American woman to be named American Mother of the Year. Both of Ruth's parents were graduates of Livingstone College and her father also had an LL.D. from Wilberforce University. Ruth was one of seven children.

Max Sr. graduated from the High School Department of Simmons University in Louisville, Kentucky in 1921 and attended the Lincoln Institute. After graduation, he moved to Chicago, where, from 1922 to 1926, he earned his B.P.E. from George Williams College (known today as Roosevelt University). While pursuing his degree, Max also worked as the director of the Oakland School Playground from 1923 until 1925. From 1926 to 1928 he was employed as physical education director at the Pittsburgh YMCA, before earning an M.A. in Education and Educational Administration at the University of Pittsburgh in 1930. Between 1929 and 1931 Max also served as the director of the Kentucky Interracial Commission.

Ruth, like her parents, attended Livingstone College, but received both her B.A. (1925) and an M.A. (1930) from Northwestern University where she majored in English Literature and Sociology. In the years between acquiring her degrees, Ruth taught English at Louisville Central High School and from 1930 to 1932 she was head of the English Department at Kentucky State College.

In 1931 Max and Ruth Clement married and moved to Los Angeles where Max was enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Southern California (USC). Although Ruth also began graduate studies at USC, she suspended her formal academic pursuits shortly after the birth of the Bonds' first child in 1933. Max received his Ph.D. in Sociology in 1936 with a dissertation entitled "The Negro in Los Angeles." Upon obtaining his doctorate, Max embarked on a career as an educator. His first position, from 1934-1938, was with the Tennessee Valley Authority as Director of Negro Personnel and Education. Ruth became known for her Tennessee Valley Authority quilt designs, which were sewn by the wives of African-American men who built dams for the TVA in the mid-1930s. Next, Max served as Dean of Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana (1938-1940); from 1940-1944 he was employed as an administrator at the Tuskegee Institute (today Tuskegee University).

In 1944 the first of Max and Ruth's foreign sojourns began: Max accepted a job with the US State Department's Inter-American Educational Foundation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where he served as director of the educational mission and Ruth was on the faculty of L'Ecole Normale de Martissant. The Bonds left Haiti in 1947 when Max was appointed Dean of the Graduate School of Education of Clark Atlanta University. In 1950 the State Department sent the Bonds to Liberia, where Max, following a reorganization of the University of Liberia, became the university's first President and Ruth headed the English Department. The Bonds enjoyed a close working relationship with Liberian President William Tubman.

Max's stint in Liberia lasted until 1955, at which point he began his work as an official in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Max's first appointment was as Education Advisor to Afghanistan's Minister of Education; next he took up a similar role in Tunisia. Just as he had done in Liberia, Max played a role in the reorganization of Kabul University and the University of Tunis. In 1960 the Bonds returned to the United States, taking up residence in Washington, D.C. briefly, before spending a year in Sierra Leone. Max's final tour of duty was in Nyasaland (now Malawi), where he organized teacher training programs. Following his retirement in 1966, Max joined Ruth in becoming active in community issues in the D.C. area. During the 1960s Ruth served as President of the African-American Women's Association, and in 1978 she was part of a National Council of Negro Women fact-finding mission that studied the role of women in Senegal, Togo, and the Ivory Coast.

Other educators in the extended Clement and Bond families included Ruth's brother, Rufus Early Clement, and Max Sr.'s brother, Horace Mann Bond. Rufus E. Clement was a long-time president of Atlanta University. Horace Bond, author of The Education of the Negro in American Social Order, served as the first African-American President of Lincoln University, as well as the head of the Bureau of Education and Social Research at Atlanta University. He also co-founded the Africa-America Institute, an organization with which Max Sr. and Ruth were closely involved.

The Bonds had three children, all of whom followed their parents' educational lead. Jane Emma Bond (b. 1933), who received her Ph.D. from University College, London University, became a professor of European History and Modern France at Baruch College; J. Max Bond, Jr. (1935-2009), an architect and Columbia University professor, was a graduate of Harvard University; and George Clement Bond (b. 1936), obtained his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and was the Director of the Institute for African Studies at Columbia University, as well as a Professor of Anthropology at Teachers College.

Max died in 1991and Ruth in 2005.

From the description of Max J. and Ruth Clement Bond papers, 1912-1995 [Bulk dates: 1930-1990]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 667178322

BIOGHIST REQUIRED James Max Bond, Sr. and Ruth Elizabeth Clement Bond, husband and wife, both hailed from prominent and well-educated African-American families.

BIOGHIST REQUIRED J. Max Bond, Sr., State Department and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) official and president of the University of Liberia, was born in Nashville, Tennessee on September 15, 1902. His father, James M. Bond (1863-1929), a Congressional Minister and community leader served as the first director of the Kentucky Commission on Interracial Cooperation. After graduating from the Oberlin College Theological Seminary in 1893, James Bond married Jane A. Browne, who was also a graduate of Oberlin. Together they had six children, including Max Sr.

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Ruth Elizabeth Clement was born in Louisville, Kentucky on May 22, 1904. Her father, George Clinton Clement was a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; in 1946 her mother, Emma Clarissa Williams Clement, became the first African-American woman to be named American Mother of the Year. Both of Ruth's parents were graduates of Livingstone College and her father also had an LL.D. from Wilberforce University. Ruth was one of seven children.

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Max Sr. graduated from the High School Department of Simmons University in Louisville, Kentucky in 1921 and attended the Lincoln Institute. After graduation, he moved to Chicago, where, from 1922 to 1926, he earned his B.P.E. from George Williams College (known today as Roosevelt University). While pursuing his degree, Max also worked as the director of the Oakland School Playground from 1923 until 1925. From 1926 to 1928 he was employed as physical education director at the Pittsburgh YMCA, before earning an M.A. in Education and Educational Administration at the University of Pittsburgh in 1930. Between 1929 and 1931 Max also served as the director of the Kentucky Interracial Commission.

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Ruth, like her parents, attended Livingstone College, but received both her B.A. (1925) and an M.A. (1930) from Northwestern University where she majored in English Literature and Sociology. In the years between acquiring her degrees, Ruth taught English at Louisville Central High School and from 1930 to 1932 she was head of the English Department at Kentucky State College.

BIOGHIST REQUIRED In 1931 Max and Ruth Clement married and moved to Los Angeles where Max was enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Southern California (USC). Although Ruth also began graduate studies at USC, she suspended her formal academic pursuits shortly after the birth of the Bonds' first child in 1933. Max received his Ph.D. in Sociology in 1936 with a dissertation entitled "The Negro in Los Angeles." Upon obtaining his doctorate, Max embarked on a career as an educator. His first position, from 1934-1938, was with the Tennessee Valley Authority as Director of Negro Personnel and Education. Ruth became known for her Tennessee Valley Authority quilt designs, which were sewn by the wives of African-American men who built dams for the TVA in the mid-1930s. Next, Max served as Dean of Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana (1938-1940); from 1940-1944 he was employed as Dean of the School of Education at the Tuskegee Institute (today Tuskegee University).

BIOGHIST REQUIRED In 1944 the first of Max and Ruth's foreign sojourns began: Max accepted a job with the US State Department's Inter-American Educational Foundation in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where he served as director of the educational mission and Ruth was on the faculty of L'Ecole Normale de Martissant. The Bonds left Haiti in 1947 when Max was appointed Dean of the Graduate School of Education of Clark Atlanta University. In 1950 the State Department sent the Bonds to Liberia, where Max, following a reorganization of the University of Liberia, became the university's first President and Ruth headed the English Department. The Bonds enjoyed a close working relationship with Liberian President William Tubman.

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Max's stint in Liberia lasted until 1955, at which point he began his work as an official in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Max's first appointment was as Education Advisor to Afghanistan's Minister of Education; next he took up a similar role in Tunisia. Just as he had done in Liberia, Max played a role in the reorganization of Kabul University and the University of Tunis. In 1960 the Bonds returned to the United States, taking up residence in Washington, D.C. briefly, before spending a year in Sierra Leone. Max's final tour of duty was in Nyasaland (now Malawi), where he organized teacher training programs. Following his retirement in 1966, Max joined Ruth in becoming active in community issues in the D.C. area. During the 1960s Ruth served as President of the African-American Women's Association, and in 1978 she was part of a National Council of Negro Women fact-finding mission that studied the role of women in Senegal, Togo, and the Ivory Coast.

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Other educators in the extended Clement and Bond families included Ruth's brother, Rufus Early Clement, and Max Sr.'s brother, Horace Mann Bond. Rufus E. Clement was a long-time president of Atlanta University. Horace Bond, author of The Education of the Negro in American Social Order, served as the first African-American President of Lincoln University, as well as the head of the Bureau of Education and Social Research at Atlanta University. He also co-founded the Africa-America Institute, an organization with which Max Sr. and Ruth were closely involved.

BIOGHIST REQUIRED The Bonds had three children, all of whom followed their parents' educational lead. Jane Emma Clement Bond (b. 1933), who received her Ph.D. from University College, London University, became a professor of European History and Modern France at Baruch College; J. Max Bond, Jr. (1935-2009), an architect and Columbia University professor, was a graduate of Harvard University; and George Clement Bond (b. 1936), obtained his Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and was the Director of the Institute for African Studies at Columbia University, as well as a Professor of Anthropology at Teachers College.

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Max died in 1991and Ruth in 2005.

From the guide to the Max J. and Ruth Clement Bond papers, 1912-2004, [Bulk dates: 1930-1990]., (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

J. Max Bond, Jr. was born on July 17th, 1935 in Louisville, Kentucky. He was the second of three children born to James Max Bond, Sr. and Ruth Elizabeth Clement Bond. His father, a prominent American educator, served as President of the University of Liberia during the 1950s.

As the son of two educators, Bond grew up on various university campuses in the South. The Bond family lived on the campus of Dillard University from 1938 to 1940 where J. Max Bond, Sr. served as Dean. The family moved to Alabama in 1940 when Bond, Sr. accepted the position of Dean of the School of Education at the Tuskegee Institute (today Tuskegee University). From 1944 to 1947, the family lived in Port-au-Prince, Haiti where Bond, Sr. worked for the US State Department’s Inter-American Educational Foundation. After living in Haiti for a few years, the family settled back in the US in Atlanta, GA. Bond, Jr. attended Booker T. Washington High School in Atlanta. After graduating in June of 1949, Bond was accepted into Morehouse College, however, his parents felt he was too young for college. In the fall of 1949, Bond entered into The Cambridge School in Cambridge, MA. The train rides between Atlanta and Washington were segregated during this time so Bond would have to change to or from a segregated car in the train yard at D.C. Bond was the second African American student to attend the Cambridge School. He later wrote that “If [the Cambridge School] was a progressive school I can’t imagine what a conservative one would have been like.”

Bond was one of 11 African American students out of 1100 admitted to Harvard College in the fall of 1951. He graduated magna cum laude in June 1955, majoring in Architectural Science. In the fall of 1955, Bond entered the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Before entering, he was interviewed by Serge Chermayeff and he later wrote that they had a lively exchange where Chermayeff was impressed or at least amused by his youthful cockiness.

Bond’s first year at H.G.S.D. proved challenging. As Bond later wrote, a faculty member at the School took him aside and said, “Mr. Bond you seem like a bright young man, but there have never been any great Negro Architects. So why don’t you pick another profession.” Despite the challenges facing minority students in H.G.S.D., Bond continued to pursue his degree, graduating in 1958 with a Master of Architecture.

Bond spent the summer after obtaining his M.Arch. at H.G.S.D. in Tunisia. The architectural landscape had a strong impact on Bond, writing later, “I loved the spare landscape (including the olive groves) and the repetition of domes and arches. All in all it was the most impressive architectural experience I had ever had.” In the fall of 1958, Bond left Tunisia for France on a Fulbright Grant where he worked with André Wogenscky, Le Corbusier’s Chef d’Atelier. Bond worked on projects such as the Unite d'habitation de Briey-en-foret and a submission for a C.I.A.M. meeting.

Leaving France in the fall of 1960, Bond moved to New York where he worked for a time at Gruzen & Partners and later for Pedersen & Tilney. During this time, Bond met his wife Jean. They were married on October 7th, 1961.

Max and Jean moved to Accra, Ghana in the fall of 1964 because, as he wrote later, “of our interest in Africa and Pan-Africanism, [and because we shared] the feeling that Nkrumah was creating a progressive Socialist state. Others in our group shared the desire to live outside the U.S. Du Bois was in Ghana and we felt we could contribute something.”

In Ghana, Bond work as an architect for the Ghana National Construction Company. While with the G.N.C.C., Bond worked on projects of interest to President Kwame Nkrumah, including the President’s office and residence as well as the Regional Library in Bolgatanga. The Ghana Library Board had programmed several new regional libraries as part of the country’s campaign to achieve full literacy. Therefore, the building was designed to include reference, adult and children’s sections, and a small auditorium for the literacy program. The design of the building was based on local architecture in that each major space is expressed almost as a separate building, and all are entered from a common area. The building was designed to respond to the local hot-dry climate by natural means rather than by relying solely on air-conditioning. It was probably Bolgatanga Library that he had in mind when he wrote later, “I’ve always felt I grew up as an architect in Ghana.”

Bond began his teaching career in 1965 as an instructor at the University of Science & Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. He accepted the position just a few months before Nkrumah was overthrown in a military coup in February 1966. Every summer, the U.S.T. sponsored research programs for the students, in which they would either work in the school’s design office or go out to document villages and indigenous architecture. For one of these research programs, Bond spearheaded a report, Banda Nkwanta, in which the students measured a village and then in studio proposed ways of providing new neighborhoods. Bond later wrote, “Those of us on the faculty learned as much as the students.”

Max and Jean returned to the US in the 1967, now with two daughters (Carey, born December 1964 and Ruth, born May 1966). Back in New York, Bond helped establish and served as the executive director of the Architect’s Renewal Committee in Harlem (A.R.C.H.), one of the early community design centers that developed during the late 1960s and 1970s.

In 1968, Bond started teaching at Columbia in the Graduate School of Architecture & Planning. He served as Assistant and Associate Professor from 1969 until 1980, Professor from 1980 to 1985, and Chairman Division of Architecture from 1980 to 1984. After leaving Columbia, Max became the Dean of the School of Architecture and Environmental Studies at City College of New York until 1991.

In 1969, Max co-founded with Donald P. Ryder the architectural firm Bond Ryder Associates. The firm quickly became one of the leading African-American architecture firms in New York and the East Coast. From its inception, the firm was involved in a broad range of projects, including: medium and high density urban housing; urban planning and design; university, religious, and community complexes.

Max served as design architect for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center and Dr. King’s entombment. The architecture of the Center was designed to reflect the nature of Dr. King’s work and the continuing Civil & Human Rights Movement. Therefore, the formal organization, building proportions, elements and materials each have a spiritual, cultural, and in some cases economic relationship to the goals of the Center.

In 1983, the firm became Bond Ryder James, Architects, P.C. Alongside J. Max Bond, Jr. and Donald P. Ryder as principals was John A. James. Some of the notable projects designed by the firm include Schomburg Center in New York; the Studio Museum in Harlem; several housing developments; Permanent Mission of India to the U.N.; Birmingham Civil Rights Institute; and the Housing Study Choice and Flexibility in Housing for Battery Park City.

In 1991, Bond Ryder Associates joined forces with Davis, Brody Associates. As one of the four partners of DBA, Max continued to be responsible for the planning and design of major institutional, residential, cultural, and commercial developments. DBA associates included Tibbalds-Monro in London, Mwamuka-Mercuir in Harare, and Linda Mvusi/DA in Johannesburg. In 1994, the firm became Davis Brody Bond, which later became Davis Brody Bond Aedas. Davis Brody Bond served as the associate architect for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center. At his death, Bond was the partner in charge of the museum portion of the memorial.

Besides being an educator and an architect, Bond was also very active in a larger professional realm. His extensive community service commitments included membership on the New York City Planning Commission from 1980 to 1986, the Municipal Arts Society Board, Board of Regents to the American Architectural Foundation, and the Trustee Board of the Studio Museum of Harlem. Max also served on many juries, panels, and design award juries including New York State Council on the Arts-Infill Housing Design Competition, Jamaican Governor General’s Design Awards, the National Endowment for the Arts panels and the Presidential Design Awards Jury, and the Chrysler Awards. He was also a part of President-Elect Clinton’s Round Table on “Design Initiatives Toward an Inclusive and Competitive America.”

Among his many awards and honors are Honorary Doctorate from New Jersey Institute of Technology, membership with the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Award for Architecture from the Atlanta Urban Design Commission for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center; 1987 Whitney M. Young, Jr. citation Award from the American Institute of Architects; and the Harry B. Rutkins Memorial Award for Service the Profession from the New York Chapter of the AIA.

J. Max Bond, Jr. died of cancer at the age of 73 on February 18, 2009.

[Quotes have been taken from biographical notes stored on Bond's Desktop Files located in Box 26, Folder 8.]

From the guide to the J. Max Bond, Jr. papers, 1955-2009, (Columbia University. Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Dept. of Drawings & Archives, )