Andrews, George F., 1918-2000

George F. Andrews was born September 25, 1918 in Minneapolis, Minn. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture from the University of Michigan in 1941 and spent the next four years in the office of Smith, Hinchman and Grylls, Architects & Engineers in Detroit. He met his future wife Geraldine (Gerrie) during this period. They married in 1945 and made a move to Chicago where Andrews began work with Perkins and Will, Architects.

In 1948, George accepted an appointment as assistant professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Oregon in Eugene and also began private architectural practice in the city under his own name. He became an associate professor in 1953 and later that decade began over forty years of intensive field study and meticulous recording of lowland Maya architecture sites in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico and the neighboring countries of Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. From 1958 to 1997, both George and Gerrie Andrews spent periods ranging from one to nine months at Maya field sites, conducting architectural surveys of excavated buildings that involved detailed measurements, scale photography, descriptive reports, and architectural sketches and drawings, including restored views of decayed buildings. The Andrews' began their fieldwork at Comalcalco, Tabasco, Mexico, with support from the Ford Foundation. They concentrated their efforts in the Puuc, Chenes-Puuc, Chenes, and Río Bec regions of the central Yucatán Peninsula because of the greater availability of exposed and relatively well-preserved sites in that particular area. Andrews retired from teaching in 1980 to devote his time to Maya research. His work culminated in the documentation of approximately 800 buildings at 224 separate archaeological sites, resulting in perhaps the most wide-ranging and detailed survey ever conducted of lowland Maya architecture.

Andrews began to publish his Maya research in the late 1960s in scholarly journals and as monographs, most notably Maya Cities: Placemaking and Urbanization (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1975) and the three-volume collection Pyramids and Palaces, Monsters and Masks (Lancaster, CA: Labyrinthos, 1995-1999). His work has inspired many others in the field of Maya archaeology, students and established professionals alike. He was the recipient of several faculty research awards from the University of Oregon and also won a Fulbright Award to lecture at Technical University, Helsinki, Finland in 1962-1963. Andrews received funding from the National Science Foundation (1972), the National Endowment for the Humanities (Senior Fellowship, 1973-1974; additional support, 1980), and from the Dumbarton Oaks Pre-Columbian Studies program (Summer Fellowship, 1998). He was active in the scholarly community, presenting many papers at professional conferences of Mayanists, archaeologists, and architectural historians in the United States, Mexico, and abroad.

In 1992, Andrews was the first American citizen to be awarded the Silver Medal by the Seminar for Prehispanic Architecture (part of the Center for Architectural and Urban Investigations in the Postgraduate School of Architecture at the National Autonomous University of Mexico - UNAM) for his contributions to the study of pre-Columbian architecture in Mesoamerica. His drawings of monumental Maya structures, recreating their appearance as built centuries ago, were particularly suitable for exhibition, and he mounted several shows of his work in Oregon at the University and private galleries, at the University of Texas at Austin, and at the UNAM Museum of Art in Mexico.

Though slowed by illness in late 1999, Andrews continued his work, analyzing the vast amount of data he had gathered in the field and organizing an exhibit, “Maya Architecture and Art,” at the Jacobs Gallery in Eugene. George F. Andrews died in Eugene, Ore. on May 19, 2000, survived by his wife and son, Alan. In 2002, the Jacobs Gallery honored the Andrews by installing three Maya benches in their exhibit space with a dedicatory plaque to both George and Gerrie Andrews.

Geraldine (Gerrie) D. Andrews was born and educated in Grand Rapids, Mich. After passing the Civil Service Exam, she began work as a stenographer in the main office of the War Department (Ordnance) in Detroit in 1941. She soon accepted a promotion that took her to Lansing where, as secretary to the Officer in Charge, she helped start a new office from the ground up. Her duties included training hundreds of people to staff different departments. At one point during this period, she was the only female awarded a meritorious service diploma from Washington at a ceremony held in Detroit.

While in Lansing, Gerrie met George Andrews, who was working for the firm of Smith, Hinchman and Grylls of Detroit. They married in 1945 and moved to Chicago, where George began work with the architectural firm of Perkins and Will, and Gerrie was employed by the Quaker Lace Company in their business office. The Andrews moved to Eugene, Oregon in 1948, and George began teaching as an assistant professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Oregon while also opening his first private architectural practice under his own name. While living in university housing, George designed their first house where they lived for just two years before moving to a second house that George had also designed, and which would become their permanent home. This move coincided with the birth of their son, Alan, in 1951.

Gerrie worked as secretary for a variety of schools and businesses in Eugene, always saving the money she earned to use for the family to travel. The Andrews spent two years in Denmark in the mid-1950s and one year in Finland during 1962-1963, where George was a visiting lecturer under the Fulbright Program. They took the opportunity to travel throughout Europe as much as they could. Their travels in Mexico and Central America had already begun with summer fieldwork conducted at Maya archaeological sites from 1958 to 1960. Their visits to Maya sites recommenced in 1964 and continued almost yearly through 2000. Gerrie was an important participant in recording measurements and other information at the sites, and in compiling site reports at their base camps and at home. She shared in the collegial atmosphere provided by the community of archaeologists who gathered to work in the area, and she persevered through sometimes dangerous conditions encountered in getting to the sites.

Gerrie devoted part of her time to volunteer work as President of the University Women's Club, and she held several positions for the Friends of the University Museum of Art, for whom she organized fundraisers including cooking demonstrations with James Beard. She also served as a docent for the museum and in later years worked in its gift shop. Gerrie has been active with the League of Women Voters and other civic involvements. Gerrie Andrews still resides in Eugene where she remains involved in many pursuits, including her house and garden, an exercise class she has been leading for thirty years, reading with elementary school children, and travel within the state through Experience Oregon, a continuing education group.

From the guide to the George F. and Geraldine D. Andrews papers 2000040, 2004003., (Alexander Architectural Archive, University of Texas Libraries, The University of Texas at Austin.)