Edward Durell Stone*

Edward Stone was born in 1902 in Fayetteville, Arkansas. As a boy, he delivered newspapers for a paper owned by the family of Senator William Fulbright (D-AR). That newspaper awarded Stone a $2.50 prize for designing and building a birdhouse, the first of many architectural awards he would win throughout his life.

At age 18, Stone moved to Boston where his older brother was already an architect. Once there, Stone worked in an electrical appliance store, then as an office boy for an architect, and finally as a draftsman for Henry Shipley, all while studying architecture at night.

In a design competition, Stone won a year's tuition to Harvard University. He later transferred to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Shortly before graduating, he won a two-year traveling scholarship.

On his return, Stone worked for several architects and opened his own office in 1936. Buildings designed by Stone include the original Museum of Modern Art in New York City; the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India; the U.S. pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair in Brussels, Belgium; Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, California; El Panama Hotel in Panama City, Panama; the General Motors Building in Detroit, Michigan; the National Geographic Building in Washington, D.C., and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, also in Washington, D.C.