Clyde Henry
DorsettFAIA

(1925–2007)

Dorsett was born in Burlington NC. He attended Elon College then was part of the Allied Invasion of Normandy in 1944 receiving two Bronze Stars. In 1946 he apprenticed at Louis Jallade in New York City where he worked on a 200-bed hospital project. Dorsett got his Bachelor's in architecture from NC State in 1953. He worked for the NC State Parks System and architects John Croft in Asheboro NC; Lyles Bissett Carlisle Wolff in Columbia SC; John Ramsay in Salisbury NC; Clemmer and Horton in Hickory NC; Croft and Hammond in Asheboro NC, and Hyatt Hammond in Asheboro NC. At some point, he had a short partnership, Dorsett & Smyre Architects. He studied at Columbia 1962-63 for a Masters in architecture majoring in medical planning and design. Following the passing of the Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963, Dorsett was brought in to the National Institute of Mental Health to establish an architectural consultation section of which he became Chief. He was so well-known was his technical support in linking facilities to programs that the process was once dubbed as "Dorsetting." Dorsett took early retirement from the institute in 1982, and entered a partnership with Constantine Karalis as Dorsett and Karalis. His archives are at Columbia.

His first marriage to Emma Franck Dorsett had three children: Elizabeth Thiel of Washington DC; Patricia Nyberg of Rochester NY; and Clyde F. Dorsett of Glenville PA. He married Roni McCarty in 2002, with two stepchildren, Mary Jane McCarty of Yardley PA, and Jimmy McCarty of Millington MD.