John Saunders Chase

John Saunders Chase was born on January 23, 1925, in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of John Saunders Chase, Sr., a school principal, and Alice Viola Hall Chase, a teacher. Raised in Annapolis, he completed his secondary education at Bates High School before serving in the United States Army from 1944 to 1946, seeing combat in the Philippine Islands during the Second World War.

Returning home, Chase earned a Bachelor of Science in architecture at Hampton University in Virginia in 1948. In 1950 he became the first African American admitted to the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture, graduating in 1952. Unable to find work at white-owned firms, he settled in Houston, joined the faculty at Texas Southern University, and founded his own practice, John S. Chase, A.I.A., Architect, Inc.

He became the first African American licensed to practice architecture in the state of Texas, and the first Black member of both the Texas Society of Architects and the Houston Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In 1971 he was a founding member of the National Organization of Minority Architects. Appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1980, he became the first African American to serve on the United States Commission of Fine Arts, and he was later elevated to the AIA College of Fellows.

Through a long career of buildings and firsts, John Saunders Chase opened doors that had been closed to those who came before him. He died in Houston on March 29, 2012. May his name and his labor be honored across the generations he made room for.