August Lewis
PolierAIA

(1922–2000)

Polier graduated from Hugh Morson High School in 1939 and NCSU in 1949, with a stint in the Army during WWII. He first worked with Richard Rice and moved with him to Cooper, Haskins and Rice. In 1955, he worked for Jesse Page and became a partner when the firm was renamed Page, Polier, Flowers, Ballard & Branan in 1974. When Page left in 1976, Polier became a senior partner until his retirement in 1988. He was known for many buildings at NCSU and ECU, plus the Bath Building (North Carolina Labs) in downtown Raleigh.

He married Afton Daniels, his high school sweetheart, in 1942. During his student days at the NCSU School of Design, she worked to help pay his way. They both spent their entire marriage totally involved in the world of North Carolina architects and architecture.

From 1959 to 1977, with the assistance of Afton, he served as the Executive Secretary of the North Carolina Board of Architecture for almost 20 years. They raised four Raleigh-born daughters in a happy marriage until Afton's death in 1973 from cancer.