Paul A. Kennon

Paul Atherton Kennon, Jr. (January 27, 1934 – January 8, 1990), was an American architect, a fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and Dean of the School of Architecture at Rice University, Texas, USA.^[1][2]

A native of Shreveport in northwestern Louisiana, Kennon studied for his undergraduate degree at Texas A & M University followed by his Masters at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Michigan. He subsequently spent seven years working as a designer for architect Eero Saarinen^[2] (he got to the Cranbrook Academy thanks to a Eliel Saarinen Memorial Fellowship).^[1]

Kennon was recruited to Rice University as associate director of the School of Architecture and a teaching faculty member. He became dean of the architecture school in September 1989, just a few months before his sudden death of a heart attack.^[2]

In 1967, he returned to work with the architectural practice, Caudill, Rowlett, Scott, headed by his mentor William W. Caudill, for whom he had worked during his college vacations. He became a design principal and then president of the company. The projects for which he was responsible won a number of awards.^[1]

Kennon was the son of Paul Atherton Kennon, Sr. (1910-1986), a native of Tangipahoa Parish in South Louisiana,^[3] and the former Gladys Bookout (1910-2001), originally from Shreveport. The couple divorced; c. 1945, Gladys married Taylor W. O'Hearn of Shreveport, subsequently a state representative from Caddo Parish, one of the first two Republicans to serve in the body since Reconstruction.

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