Philip W. Dinsmore, FAIA, died January 28 in Tucson after a long illness. He was 60. Dinsmore had served the AIA on a local, state, and national scale with distinction in many roles, including a three-year term as regional director on the AIA Board from the Western Mountain Region, a four-year term as secretary of the Institute, and five years of continued service as a member and chair of the Board of Trustees of the AIA Trust.

Dinsmore, managing principal for The Durrant Group’s Tucson office, gained a reputation for his work in school architecture. He designed the University of Arizona Electrical and Computer Engineering building as well as libraries at Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University. He also created many of Tucson’s local schools and government and commercial office buildings. “He best represented what an architect should be. He was concerned about design and quality work and his clients,” said Frank Slingerland, Dinsmore’s colleague and design director at Durrant.

“He had always wanted to be an architect and his architecture family and friends were his passion,” his wife Mary Kay said. Dinsmore grew up in Tucson and received his BArch from the University of Arizona in 1965. Prior to coming to Durrant, he was vice president and principal-in-charge of design of Roberts Dinsmore Associates, Phoenix; founding partner and principal-in-charge of Architecture One Ltd., Tucson and Phoenix; an associate at CNWC Architects, Tucson; and a project designer at William L. Pereira & Associates, Los Angeles.

The AIA elevated Dinsmore to the College of Fellows in 1986. In addition to his service to the Institute, which also included time as a member of the American Architectural Foundation Board of Regents and as chair of the Fellows Committee of the Arizona Society of Architects, Dinsmore supported and mentored many young architects. He was a founding trustee of the Durrant Foundation and chaired the firm’s scholarship committee. He also served on the board of the YMCA of Metropolitan Tucson, was a founding member of Civitas Sonoran Environmental Design Council, and co-chaired the Tucson Unified School District Citizens’ Capital Project Committee in 1988–89.

Durrant and AIA Southern Arizona have established the Phil Dinsmore Scholarship Fund, donations for which may be sent to The Cornerstone Building Foundation; 4633 E. Broadway, Suite 101; Tucson, AZ 85711.

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