John Selfridge Retires

John Selfridge joined the faculty of what was then the College of Architecture and Design in the fall of 1969. He retired during the summer of 2008 after 39 years of service to Kansas State University.

Early on, John taught environmental design history and design studio in the inital academic program for beginning students in the college, first when it was a two-year experience and later taught design studio when the common program was converted to a single year. For many years John also regularly taught in the planning program with classes such as the undergraduate introduction to planning, numerous communications modules and topical seminars such as natural disaster planning. A favorite course in planning was community development workshop which he created to give students actual contact with citizens in senior centers, neighborhood associations or schools (where often the topic was developing playgrounds through community action). At the time, this student contact was thought of as reality therapy. More recently, John taught in the Department of Architecture where, in addition to studio, his favorite course was building-related health and safety, a vital topic rarely covered directly in design curricula. Throughout his career in the college, John has been a supporter of graduate students and served as major professor and/or committee member for dozens upon dozens of students.

John’s architectural experience began in high school working in architectural and engineering offices in Wichita. His introduction to the economic vagaries of design offices (see boom/bust cycles) began when, in a small architectural office, he observed that the principal’s income taxes one year exceeded the firm’s gross income the next.

Other associations in environmental design continued with his founding of a firm, PlainEnergy, in the 1970’s. John and the firm promoted, designed and/or sometimes built energy-centered projects including numerous active and passive solar-system residences. Other projects included a successfully (DOE) funded, solar-assisted co-generation development-the editing of a wind energy handbook for the state of Kansas. More recently, John wrote the program and proposal for the continued redevelopment of KSU’s 1932 Dairy Barn.

Additionally, John worked several years as a professional graphic designer. His professional planning experience includes work at local, sub-state regions and state levels as development officer, analyst/editor/writer, and comunications coordinator. While waiting for a major research project to commence in the 1980’s, John worked for several years as a consultant to ALR Architecture in New Haven, CT, on such projects as a condominium development in a historic district, a health clinic competition, and numerous commercial and mixed-use buildings.

John’s undergraduate degree in art history is from the University of Kansas. His master’s degree in city planning is from the School of Architecture at Yale University where he was a Pittsburgh Plate Glass Foundation Fellow in City Planning and worked for TPA, an early, major planning consultancy for communities in New England. His Ph.D. in epidemiology and public health is from the Graduate School and the School of Medicine at Yale. There, his dissertation was on correlates of thermal comfort reports in office settings and based upon a large research program at the Library of Congress and at the Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, DC, of which he was part.

John was one of the founders, board member and newsletter editor of the Kansas Solar Energy Society, a regional chapter of the American Solar Energy Society. Within this group and across the state, he organized telenet meetings, workshops on DIY solar water-heaters and other devices, and provided solar analysis and the promotion of what has come to be called sustainable development. John has had an active participation in several local energy and political community-action groups; he was also a long-time leader in the Boy Scouts of America.

John’s service to the university included service on many departmental, college, and university committees and taskforces. For example, John was often the chair of Academic Affairs in his several terms in the KSU Faculty Senate and began the efforts to streamline/digitize the approval process for course and curricula changes in the university. He also organized, in the 1970’s, the first College of Architecture, Planning, and Design conference on computers in environmental design.