Mel Streeter

Mel Streeter (1931 – June 12, 2006) was an American architect and college basketball player. A native of Riverside, California, he was the second African-American basketball player at the University of Oregon for the Ducks in the early 1950s. After serving as an officer in the U.S. Army, he moved to Seattle and worked as an architect.

Mel Streeter
Streeter in the 1952 Oregana
Personal information
NationalityAmerican
Listed height6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Career information
High schoolRiverside Poly (Riverside, California)
CollegeOregon (1949–1952)
Number11

Early life

Streeter was born in 1931 and grew up in Riverside, California, the son of a porter and a cook.[1][2] After playing basketball at Riverside Polytechnic High School, he attended the University of Oregon starting in 1950, declining to play for UCLA coach John Wooden in order to be able to learn architecture at Oregon.[1][3] At Oregon, he played on the men's basketball team, the second African-American to play for the Ducks.[2] The 6' 4" forward wore number 11, and was the only black player on the team at the time.[4] In 1954, he married Kathleen Burgess, in one of the first legal mixed marriages in Oregon.[5] The couple would have four sons, Doug, Kurt, Jon, and Ken.[5]

Career

He attended Oregon on an Army scholarship, and after graduating in 1955 with a bachelor's degree in architecture he joined the Army as an officer.[5][6] Streeter was then stationed at Fort Lawton in Seattle's Magnolia neighborhood from 1955 to 1957.[2][5] After leaving the Army in 1957, he stayed in Seattle and began working as an architect.[1][5] He later opened his own firm in 1967, which eventually grew to 30 architects before the partners split.[1][2] Streeter served on Seattle's planning commission between 1989 and 2000.[1]

Notable projects
  • African American Academy, Seattle[1]
  • Auburn City Hall, Auburn, Washington[1]
  • Federal Aviation Administration Regional Headquarters at Boeing Field, Seattle[5]
  • Naval Station Everett, Everett, Washington[2]
  • John Muir Elementary School, Seattle[2]

References
  1. Large, Jerry (June 15, 2006). "Architect Mel Streeter "left a legacy of his creative genius"". The Seattle Times. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  2. "Streeter, Mel (1931–2006) | The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed". www.blackpast.org. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  3. Streeter, Kurt (7 June 2009). "For him, French Open final is a family matter". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  4. Streeter, Kurt (31 March 2017). "Oregon basketball team's first out-of-state black player paved the way with his struggles and success". The Undefeated. ESPN. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  5. Chansanchai, Athima (June 12, 2006). "Streeter, pioneering architect, dead at 75". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  6. "Mel Streeter". School of Architecture and Allied Arts. University of Oregon. Retrieved 1 April 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.