The Good Mentor

I've been asked if I have more on my dad's time with Frank Lloyd Wright.

I'll get a bit more together later but here is something you can look at in the meantime:

And yes, that old guy in the flat hat is indeed Frank Lloyd Wright. And the young fellow in the red sweater bears an uncanny resemblance to the blog author.

That young man went on to build a custom home for his first client. That home still stands today and the original owners still live in it. The owners say the house has never, ever needed any maintenance or repairs even to this day, enduring harsh northern weather with grace. The house is exquisite, built with hand-selected natural materials and embracing a panoramic view of a beautiful lake. The architect said it was the hardest damn thing he ever did.

He swore off building houses forever after that and focused only on commercial buildings and shopping centers. One development was "The Crossroads" in Sacramento, CA - a breathtakingly beautiful shopping center that thrived until some idiot flying a jet that he was not licensed to be in crashed into it. He also built a lovely shopping complex in downtown Santa Cruz called "The Galleria" (he just designed them, he didn't name them). This complex was so well engineered, that while every other nearby building suffered damage in the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, his was unscathed.

Through it all, he helped many young people learn the finer points of his craft. Even though, like his teacher, he was a brilliant engineer, my dad always said he was in the business of design, not construction.

Joy and I were the last people my dad saw before he passed. Joy told me my dad won't leave the Earth until he sees me one last time. I'm glad he waited.