Louis Skidmore
Louis Skidmore (April 8, 1897 – September 27, 1962) was an American architect, co-founder of the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and recipient of the AIA Gold Medal. Biography Louis Skidmore was born in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. He served in the United States Army during World War I as a Sergeant. On June 14, 1930, he married Eloise Owings, the sister of Nathaniel A. Owings his future business partner. Louis and Eloise were married for over 32 years until his death in 1962. They had two sons Louis, Jr. and Philip Murray. Bradley Polytechnic Institute Louis Skidmore studied at Bradley Polytechnic Institute, now known as Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, finishing in 1917. Boston Louis Skidmore trained with Cram and Ferguson, a large, established firm in Boston that designed Gothic style buildings. At night he studied at the Boston Architectural Club creating additional design problems that were critiqued by Harvard and MIT professors. Winning a prize at the BAC opened the door for Skidmore to attend MIT. He subsequently studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology until 1924. Europe After eight years of practicing architecture, Skidmore won the Rotch Traveling Fellowship that allowed him to travel to Europe, where he spent