Samuel "Sambo" Mockbee was an American architect and a co-founder of the Auburn University Rural Studio program in Hale County, Alabama.
16 Facts About Samuel Mockbee
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Samuel Mockbee went on to receive numerous awards for his work, including a MacArthur Foundation grant that he used to further the work of the Rural Studio.
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Samuel Mockbee served two years in the US Army beginning in 1957.
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Samuel Mockbee enrolled at Auburn University and graduated from the School of Architecture in 1974 with a Bachelor of Architecture degree.
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Samuel Mockbee interned in Columbus, Georgia before returning to Mississippi in 1977, where he formed a partnership with his classmate and friend, Thomas Goodman.
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The firm's work in local vernacular attracted notice, and was recognized with a monograph published by the Architectural League of New York in 1990, followed in 1995 by Samuel Mockbee Coker: Thought and Process, published by the Princeton Architectural Press.
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In 1982 Samuel Mockbee became involved in renovating houses for Catholic charities in Madison County, Mississippi.
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Samuel Mockbee continued to paint and draw as an avocation, as he had since childhood.
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Samuel Mockbee searched for a location in which to expand the program of working with architecture students to give them practical experience while actively addressing poverty and substandard housing.
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Samuel Mockbee maintained his family's residence in Canton and spent the work week at the Newbern studio.
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Samuel Mockbee was elected to the American Institute of Architecture's College of Fellows in 1989.
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In 1993, Samuel Mockbee was awarded a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts to work toward the publication of his book, The Nurturing of Culture in the Rural South An Architectonic Documentary.
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Samuel Mockbee was awarded a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, informally known as the "Genius Grant", in 2000.
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Samuel Mockbee put the $500,000 award toward Rural Studio projects.
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Samuel Mockbee was nominated posthumously in 2003 for the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal.
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Some of Samuel Mockbee's work was selected by Lawrence Rinder to be part of the Whitney Museum of Art 2002 Biennial.