Outstanding alumnus Bolton ’41 passes away in Houston Nov. 2

Preston Bolton ’41, an outstanding alumnus of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture and a member of the American Institute of Architects’ College of Fellows, passed away Nov. 2 in Houston. Funeral services are scheduled at 1:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7 at First Presbyterian Church, 5300 Main Street, in Houston.

Bolton, who earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Texas A&M, was the son of F.C. Bolton, president of Texas A&M from 1948-50.

After serving with a field artillery unit in World War II in Europe and the Middle East and earning five Bronze Stars, he moved to Houston to begin a landmark career in architecture.

In 1951, Bolton and Howard Barnstone began a 10-year collaboration, producing a series of Modern, rectilinear, flat-roofed houses in the manner of Philip Johnson and Mies van der Rohe that brought their firm, Bolton and Barnstone, to national attention.

These homes included the [Gordon] (http://houstonmod.org/bldg_detail.asp?id=48&by=arch&seled=Bolton%20and%20Barnstone) (1955), Moustier (1955), [Farfel] (http://houstonmod.org/bldg_detail.asp?id=54&by=arch&seled=Bolton%20and%20Barnstone) (1956) and [Owsley] (http://houstonmod.org/bldg_detail.asp?id=50&by=arch&seled=Bolton%20and%20Barnstone) (1961) houses in Houston, the Blum House (1954) in Beaumont and the Cook House (1959) in Friendswood.

During this period Bolton and Barnstone won 16 design awards from the Texas Society of Architects, AIA Houston, and Architectural Record magazine. Their work was widely published in other national and local magazines.

A Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Honor of Llewelyn W. Pitts Award winner in 1971, he was named to Who's Who in America in 1990 and honored in 1993 with the P.M. Bolton Recognition Day/Business Leadership in the Arts Award.

In December 2008, AIA Houston [honored] (http://archone.tamu.edu/college/news/newsletters/spring2009/stories/AIAdonation.html) him with three new acquisitions of contemporary silver serving pieces in his name to the AIA Houston Design Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. He was named a member emeritus of the College of Architecture's Dean's Advisory Council, after serving on the council from 2002-08.