William Clayton
Mays Jr.AIA

(1929–2017)

Mays grew up in Fair Play SC and received a BS in Architecture from nearby Clemson University in 1950. Although he and future partner Robert Parks both attended Clemson, they were in different classes and did not meet until after graduating, when Mays joined Parks to work at Six Associates in Asheville NC from 1950 to 1953. Mays and Parks both worked for Harold Woodward & Associates in Spartanburg SC from 1953 to 1956, where Mays served as a designer, primarily working in public school projects.

In 1956, Mays and Parks both moved to High Point NC where Parks had family friends who offered to help them start an architectural firm. At the time there were only about three firms in High Point, and the development of the I-85 corridor directly adjacent to the city created a demand for more architects in the area. Mays and Parks, Associates operated there from 1956 to 1981, when Parks retired. He passed away in 1993. Although the firm did not overall have a residential focus, they designed several modernist homes in the early years of their practice, mostly in High Point.

Mays joined the AIA in 1957 and was instrumental in the formation of the Piedmont Section of the North Carolina AIA. He was a sole proprietor from 1981 to 1986 before working for Smithey & Boynton, a Roanoke VA firm with a High Point office, from 1986 to 1992. His last completed project with Smithey & Boynton was the Neal F. Austin Public Library in High Point. He retired in 2000 and lived in High Point.