George Kassabaum

George Edward Kassabaum was born in Atchison, Kansas. He was the only child of George Kassabaum and Dorothy Kassabaum. From a very young age he expressed an interest in becoming an architect. He graduated from Classen Senior High School in Oklahoma City in 1938.

He attended Washington University in St. Louis where he met his future partners, George Hellmuth and Gyo Obata. He earned both a bachelor's and master's degrees in architecture before graduating in 1947.

Kassabaum graduated in 1947 and began working for a local architecture firm in St. Louis founded by two faculty members of Washington University.

In 1955, he co-founded Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, now known as HOK.

He was national president of the American Institute of Architects from 1968 to 1969, and served as the 16th Chancellor of the AIA College of Fellows from 1978 to 1979.

Kassabaum married Marjory Verser in 1949. The couple had three children: Douglas, Anne, and Karen.

Kassabaum died at Barnes Hospital, St. Louis, on August 14, 1982, at the age of 61, having suffered a stroke three days earlier at his home in Ladue, a suburb of St. Louis.

Kassabaum was a board member of Washington University and an Eliot Society president.