Mason Spiller
HicksFAIA

(1921–2010)

Hicks was born in Bluefield WV moved to Buckhannon WV in 1931. At the age of 15 he built a black walnut colonial four poster bed still in use by the family today. He was a 1939 graduate of Buckhannon-Upshur High School and went on to study mathematics and art at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon. Drafted in 1942, he was sent by the Army Air Corps to study meteorology at MIT. After a distinguished career as a meteorologist in Europe during WWII, Mason was discharged as a Captain in 1946. Under the GI Bill he went on to study architecture at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and MIT from which he earned an MA in Architecture in 1949. Hicks worked for Jim Webb in Chapel Hill 1950-1952. In 1952, he moved to Fayetteville and was partners with Dan and Frank MacMillan at MacMillan, Hicks, and MacMillan. In 1960, he left to form his own firm. He partnered with Jim Willis as Hicks and Willis 1965-1967. Notable projects include the 1969 Fayetteville Airport Terminal. Hicks taught with Harwell Harris at the NCSU School of Design in 1985. He was also an avid furniture builder. He retired in the early 1990s and lived in Fayetteville. He had two daughters, Baylor and Mary.

Hicks is third from left, with John Webb, Jim Webb, William Wurster, and Wurster's wife Catherine Bauer and their daughter. Photo by Dan MacMillan.

Left to right: Bill Laslett, Henry Kamphoefner, and Hicks.