Supporting the Work and Mission of ICOMOS-USA, the U.S. Committee of the International Council on Monuments and Sites
Join
Newsletter

Roy Eugene Graham, FAIA

World Heritage USA is pleased to present Roy Eugene Graham, FAIA a 2015 Ann Webster Smith Award in recognition of his many years of leadership and support for ICOMOS and World Heritage USA and for his distinguished body of work in service of the broad goals of international heritage preservation.

Professor Graham became actively involved with World Heritage USA early in his career, serving on the Board of Trustees of World Heritage USA for over 15 years, including a period as Secretary. He co-chaired the ICOMOS International committee on Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites (ICIP) for a decade. He has frequently represented the United States at ICOMOS Triennial General Assemblies and rendered exemplary service. He served as president/rapporteur of the 1981 General Assembly in Rome and presented a paper at the 15th General Assembly in Xi’an, China (2005). He also represented the US at both the 1987 Washington, DC General Assembly and the 11th General Assembly held in Sofia, Bulgaria in 1996.

He has participated in and been a speaker on historic preservation related topics at a number of conferences internationally such as the annual assemblies of the Organization of World Heritage Cities, the Royal Institute of Canadian Architects, and the World Archeological Congress. He was keynote speaker at the Council of Europe meeting in Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina in 1991.

Graham has also had a long a distinguished association with the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), an intergovernmental organization based in Rome. He was an ICCROM sponsored speaker at meetings in Macedonia, Lithuania, Finland and Latvia. Sent to the Riga meeting by ICCROM, he was the US and ICROM voice in developing the Riga Charter on Authenticity and Historical Reconstruction in Relationship to Cultural Heritage. After he joined the faculty of the Catholic University of America, he established an urban conservation degree program and began working with ICCROM as well as the Pontifical Commission for the Conservation of the Artifacts and Historic Patrimony of the Church.

He organized and received a NAFTA grant for CUCINA (Consortium for Urban Conservation in North America, which included six universities from Canada, the US, and Mexico) that resulted in a student/faculty exchange between the countries.

As a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects and US/ ICOMOS, he is a recognized and well respected expert on architectural heritage conservation. After the earthquake at Assisi, Graham served on a panel of experts giving professional advice to the Italian government on mitigating the damage to the Basilica of St. Francis. He was a part of group of experts from ICCROM who gave professional advice to India on the conservation of the Taj Mahal. In private practice, projects of note included a Conservation Plan for the World Heritage Town of Lunenburg, Canada and an inventory of cultural properties belonging to the Catholic Church in the US.

In 1991, Graham was awarded a Senior Fulbright Professorship at the University of Ljubljana, which led to further Fulbright funding in order for him to establish the Consortium for Urban Conservation in the North Adriatic between Slovenia, ICCROM and the Catholic University. Students produced Heritage Conservation Plans on historic sites in Slovenia and the Balkans.

In 2003, Graham became director of the historic preservation program at the University of Florida. As the Beinecke-Reeves Distinguished Professor, he worked to add historic preservation to the Master’s and Doctorate programs and established the Center for World Heritage Stewardship. At the request of the UNESCO World Heritage Center, he organized and selected speakers from Canada and the US to participate in a symposium on Mid-Century Modern Architecture in North America held in Miami. Professor Graham served on the Advisory Board of the National Park Service’s National Center for Preservation Technology and Training, serving as Chairman and became active on the board of the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation which awarded him The Carl Weinhardt Lifetime Achievement award in 2011 and named a preservation education award for him in 2014. In 2013, he received the James Marston Fitch Preservation Education Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Council for Preservation Education (NCPE).