Ernest “Ernie” Eugene Jacks Jr.

of Fayetteville passed away peacefully at Washington Regional Medical Center early on the morning of February 14, 2020 at age 94. He was also known as “Buddy” by his wife, Nita Jacks. They were married 72 years.

Ernie was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on December 14, 1925, and grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas. His father owned grocery stores and Ernie loved accompanying his father on weekly grocery buying trips. As the Great Depression hit, their family kept many other families with food, either on credit or by giving it to them, which in turn led to their own hard times. Ernie also lived in towns in Texas, Mississippi and others in Arkansas.

Ernie was called into World War II in 1944, serving as a naval aviation radar technician, Petty Officer 1st Class, Flight Test Squadron. After leaving the Navy in 1946, he attended Arkansas State University, where he met Nita Allen. They were married in 1947 and moved to Fayetteville, where Ernie entered the fledgling architecture program at the University of Arkansas. After graduating cum laude in 1950 with a bachelor’s in architecture, he worked as a draftsman with the Edward Durrell Stone and Erhart, Eichenbaum and Rauch offices in Little Rock, where he worked on the University of Arkansas Medical Center design. He was called back into the Navy in 1951 during the Korean War, this time serving as a structural draftsman, 1st Class, at Kodiak Island, Alaska, and Coronado Island, California, where Nita joined him.

After the war, Ernie joined the Los Angeles office of Craig Ellwood, where he worked on the historic Case Study House program of the professional journal Arts & Architecture. In 1953, Ernie and Nita moved to Norman, Oklahoma, for Ernie’s brief graduate studies in Design with Bruce Goff at the University of Oklahoma. In 1954, they moved to Little Rock, where Ernie again worked in the EER office as a draftsman and designer. He worked on further UA Medical School designs, Roosevelt Road High School, Little Rock Air Force Base, North Little Rock Housing Project ARK 2-2 and the Collie Office Building designs.

In 1955, the couple returned to Fayetteville, where Ernie became an associate of and opened an office for Edward Durrell Stone. Mr. Stone then dispatched Ernie to open a Stone office in Palo Alto, California, where Nita joined him as he worked on the Stanford Medical Center design. In 1956, they returned to Fayetteville, where Ernie worked in the Stone office on the Carlson Terrace and Sigma Nu designs. A daughter, Jennifer, was born in 1958. Early in 1959, Ernie, Nita, Jennifer and cat “Potsy” took the train to move to the main Stone office in Manhattan, New York. While there, he worked on the designs for the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, the U.S. Pavilion at the Brussels World Fair, the International College in Beirut, the National Museum in Ponce, Puerto Rico, the Gallery of Modern Art in Manhattan, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the North Carolina Legislative Capitol and the House of Representatives buildings in Raleigh, N.C. and the Beckman Auditorium at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Ernie also travelled

extensively with Mr. Stone to manage different projects in London, Scotland, Beirut, Paris, Rome, Madrid, Toledo and Lisbon.

In the spring of 1961, Ernie was offered a teaching position at the University of Arkansas, but instead chose to join the Holloway-Reeves office in Raleigh, North Carolina. There, he worked on the Central Prison Psychiatric Hospital, Chamber of Commerce building, Catholic High School, 4-H summer camp, St. Mary’s College Library, Cerebral Palsy Rehabilitation Center and Presbyterian Church designs. After being offered a professorship in the Architecture Department at the University of Arkansas, Ernie accepted, and the family returned to Fayetteville at the end of 1961. Ernie and Nita purchased a home on the top of Mt. Sequoyah. In early 1962, Ernie began as a professor and opened his own architectural practice office on the Fayetteville Square. He worked on the remodeling for the Architecture Department office and designed the Patrick House, the Chambers House, the Ozark Folk Center and a bank in Mountain View, the Fine Arts Center at the University of Arkansas in Monticello, the third phase of Carlson Terrace, the Kappa Sigma House, St. Joseph Catholic Church on Lafayette Street, the Fayetteville Housing Authority’s Willow Heights complex, the Hillcrest Towers Public Housing building and a number of other projects in Arkansas. He also worked on the Northwest Arkansas Architects’ Council and led the development of a viable plan for the downtown Fayetteville Square. In 1973, he took a sabbatical to work in the Wittenburg, Delony and Davidson office in Little Rock, where he worked on the Central High School Band Building design.

Ernie was an extremely devoted professor, saying that if the students had to be in the architecture building working on drafts/designs in the evening, then he needed to be there to help them. At times, especially during charettes, it was a rare occasion for Nita and Jennifer to have him home to eat dinner! He was one of a small group of architectural faculty members who guided the school into national prominence during the 1950s and 1960s. Ernie was one of the leaders for the Architecture Department’s move into Vol Walker Hall in the late 1960s and shift to becoming the School of Architecture in 1974. In 1975, he shuttered his practice and devoted himself wholly to his teaching duties. From 1975 to 1988, Ernie served as the Associate Dean of the College and also served as faculty advisor for Tau Kappa Alpha Fraternity. In 1989, he stepped down from the deanship and returned to his favorite work, teaching the students. In 1991, he worked briefly on the renovation of the UA Fine Arts Center during a second sabbatical. He was a design consultant for various other architects around the country. In 1992, Ernie officially “retired,” but continued to teach his lecture courses as an Emeritus Professor. Finally, following the spring semester of 1995, he truly retired from the University. The family wishes to deeply thank the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design for its Ernie Jacks Distinguished Lecture series.

From 1964 to 1990, Ernie served as member and chairman of the Fayetteville Planning Commission, and was instrumental in developing two of the city’s general growth plans (1970 and 1990), as well as its sign ordinance, greenspace/parks ordinance, screening and landscaping ordinances and bypass ordinance.

Ernie had several hobbies that he truly enjoyed; flying airplanes and parachuting in his younger years, inboard-cruiser boating on Beaver Lake from 1966 to 2004 (including annual grand springtime pre-graduation parties with his students), walking the hills of Fayetteville and playing tennis for exercise, reading on the subjects of history, wars, mathematics, the sciences, philosophy, animals, politics and, of course, architecture and using a computerized flight simulator and yoke to “fly to” exotic places all over the world. He always said, “I am happiest when I am learning something.” Ernie authored two books, Remembering Craig Ellwood and The Elegant Bohemian, a book about Mr. Stone. He thoroughly enjoyed weekly lunches with Nita, when they would be elegantly dressed and Ernie would remove her coat and seat her as a true gentleman.

Ernie was amazed when two of his designs/houses were put on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2016, the Oscar Chambers House in Fort Smith was placed and, in 2017, the James Patrick House in Fayetteville was also added to it.

Ernie is survived by his wife, Nita; daughter and son-in-law, Jennifer and Don Shreve; and Russian Blue cat, Anastasia; all of Fayetteville. The family wishes to thank Bettina Lehovec for her devoted care of Ernie over the past 18 months and the doctors and nurses at Washington Regional.

A memorial service is being planned by his former students and an announcement of this is forthcoming. Memorial donations may be made to either the Fayetteville Animal Services/ Shelter or the Fay Jones School of Architecture in Fayetteville, Arkansas.