“We've lost a national treasure,” read a bulletin from North Carolina State University issued June 20. A guardian of his fellow man, a champion of architecture, and a dedicated community leader, Leslie N. Boney Jr., FAIA, passed away Thursday evening, June 19, in his Wilmington, N.C., home.

The Wallace, N.C., native and lifelong Carolinian was graduated in 1940 from North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering with a BS in architectural engineering. He served in the military from 1941 to 1945, building airfields in the Southwest Pacific and the U.S., while rising to the rank of major in the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and earning the Bronze Star. He then began his lifetime career in architecture, joining his father in the firm of Leslie N. Boney, Architect, in Wilmington. He worked there for the remainder of his life, most recently as chairman emeritus of Boney, PLLC.

“The American Institute of Architects is of course larger than any one man or woman. Yet, if the essence of what it means to be an AIA architect could somehow be distilled in the person of one single member, that person would surely be Les Boney Jr., FAIA,” says Executive Vice President/CEO Norman L. Koonce, FAIA. “The irrepressible man with the camera has been taken from our midst, but the snapshots each of us have of a moment, a snatch of conversation, or a good deed done remain in the hearts of the literally thousands he touched.”

Much service, many honors
In 1966, Boney was elevated to AIA Fellow. Among his many other national honors is the 1982 Edward Kemper Award, given annually to the architect deemed to have made the most significant contribution to the profession of architecture. He has served as director of the AIA South Atlantic Region and as Chancellor of the AIA College of Fellows, as a member of the national AIA Committee on Schools and College Architecture, and as chair of the national AIA State Governmental Affairs Committee and the State and Regional Schools Committee.

In 2000, he became the initial recipient of the College of Fellows’ new Leslie N. Boney Jr. Spirit of Fellowship Award. In so doing, the College summed up Boney’s impact: "He has continued service to the profession through his valued suggestions, poems, photographs, encouragement, ideas, and his thoughtful critiques. He is both a mentor and role model for the profession. In creating the award, the College sought out the one person they felt best exemplifies the Spirit of Fellowship which binds the profession together as architects."

In North Carolina, Boney served as president of the state chapter and as president and organizer of the Eastern Carolina Council of Architects. In 1996, he received the William Henley Deitrick Medal for extraordinary service to the profession, the community, and the chapter. On a state level, he helped organize the North Carolina School Planning Conferences, and was appointed by various governors to advise them on public school finance and construction.

Devoted to education, historic preservation
Boney designed hundreds of public buildings and helped strengthen the institutions the buildings served. A devoted alumnus of N.C. State University throughout his career, he served as president of the N.C. State General Alumni Association, president of the N.C. State Architectural Foundation, chair of the N.C. State Public Affairs Committee, as a member of the school’s Public Relations Committee, and as a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honorary Scholastic Society. In 1996, he received the Watauga Medal, the highest non-academic honor given by the university for service. Dean Marvin J. Malecha, FAIA, (this year’s Topaz Medallion recipient) says, “Leslie embodied one of the founding tenets of the College of Design, that the designer should assume a formative role as a creative leader and a responsible citizen . . . We shall all miss his warmth, graciousness, and leadership.”

An active writer and editor, Boney worked on book projects throughout his life, including working as a collaborator on The Lincoln Memorial and Its Architect, Henry Bacon, as coordinator of The AIA Gold Medal, as editor of The History of the AIA in North Carolina: 1913-1999,” Harnett Hooper and Howe: Revolutionary Leaders in the Lower Cape Fear, and Let There Be Light: God’s Story Through Stained Glass. Friends and coworkers estimate that during his lifetime he wrote some 30,000 letters to friends, family, and colleagues with the help of his long-time friend and assistant, Grace G. Hobbs.

An active civic volunteer, Boney served his community in a number of roles, many of them related to historic preservation. In 1982, he was selected by the Wilmington Civitan Club as Citizen of the Year. In 1984, he received the Clarendon Cup Literary Award from the Lower Cape Fear Historical Society. In 1997, he and his wife Lillian were recipients of the UNC-Wilmington Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award, and in 2002 the two of them were selected as recipients of the Ruth Coltrane Cannon Cup, the highest award for historic preservation given in North Carolina. Boney also served his church as moderator of the Wilmington Presbytery, chair of the Board of Deacons at First Presbyterian Church, and as a ruling elder. In 2002, the church named its new fellowship hall Leslie N. Boney Hall in honor of him and his family.

Surviving him are his beloved wife, Lillian Bellamy Boney; two daughters; and a son.

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