Sources: Hooker, Van Dorn. Centuries of Hands: An Architectural History of St. Francis Assisi Church and its Missions. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Sunstone Press, 1996. Hooker, Van Dorn. Only In New Mexico: An Architectural History of the University of New Mexico; The First Century. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2000.
Van Dorn Hooker was born in Carthage, Texas in 1921. Hooker received his Bachelor of Architecture Degree from the University of Texas and practiced in Austin, Texas until relocating to New Mexico in 1951. Hooker worked with the Santa Fe firm of Meem, Holien and Buckley until he and John McHugh formed a practice in 1956.
In 1963, Van Dorn Hooker was appointed University Architect, University of New Mexico and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1987. During that time, Van Dorn Hooker promoted both the preservation and the modernization of the UNM campus’ signature Spanish Pueblo Style. The first major campus project during his tenure was the College of Education (1963). While at UNM, Van Dorn Hooker oversaw 75 major construction, addition and remodel projects on the campus. Additionally, the University received more than 30 design awards for buildings and landscapes during his 24-year career.
Marjorie Mead Hooker was born in 1925 in Sedalia, Missouri. She was the first woman to receive a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from the University of Texas and the only woman in her graduating class. Marjorie Mead Hooker was the third woman licensed to practice architecture in the state of Texas and the fourth in her adopted home of New Mexico. She continued to be a ground breaker in the architecture profession as the first woman elected President of AIA Albuquerque and the first woman appointed to the New Mexico Board of Examiners of Architects. Between the years 1951-1965, Marjorie Mead Hooker served as an associate in the firm of McHugh, Hooker, Kidder and Associates. In 1965, Hooker established her own practice. In 1968, she joined the Albuquerque based firm of Flatow, Moore, Bryan and Fairburn where she remained for over 20 years. In her long and productive career, Hooker was awarded the Governor’s Award for Outstanding New Mexico Women in 1990 and the New Mexico Architects Medal by AIA New Mexico in 2003.
Shortly after Marjorie Mead Hooker’s death in November 2006, the Marjorie Mead Hooker Memorial Visiting Professorship was established in the University of New Mexico’s School of Architecture and Planning. This endowed faculty position was a gift from Marjorie Mead Hooker’s husband of 59 years Van Dorn Hooker and their two children.
From the guide to the Van Dorn and Marjorie Mead Hooker Architectural Drawings and Plans, 1954-1967, (University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research)
