Kamrath, Karl, 1911-1988

Karl Kamrath (1911-1988) was born in Enid, Oklahoma on April 25, 1911. The Kamrath family, including father G.A. Kamrath and mother Martha Kreplin Kamrath, moved to Austin, Texas while Karl Kamrath was a young boy. He excelled at tennis from an early age and continued to play throughout his life. Karl Kamrath attended the University of Texas, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1934. That year he married fellow tennis champion Eugenie Sampson, and moved to Chicago to work as an architect. Turning down an opportunity to play tennis professionally, he worked for Pereira and Pereira, the Interior Studios of Marshall Field and Company, and the Architectural Decorating Company. During this time in Chicago, Kamrath decided to open a firm in Houston with fellow University of Texas graduate, Fred MacKie.

Kamrath and his family moved back to Texas in 1937. MacKie and Kamrath opened an architectural firm in Houston the same year and Kamrath became a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 1939. During World War II, Kamrath served as captain in the United States Corps of Engineers. After his release from duty in the military, MacKie and Kamrath reopened the Houston firm in 1946. Kamrath had an opportunity to meet Frank Lloyd Wright when he visited Taliesin in June of 1946. This trip had a profound effect on Kamrath’s architectural designs as he committed himself to creating organic architecture following Wright’s Usonian principles.

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