Roger Dale Sherwood

1935 - 2022

November 11, 1935 - September 3, 2022 Roger Sherwood, Professor Emeritus at the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California, School of Architecture, passed away in his home in Los Angeles at age 86, after a long battle with Lewy Body Dementia. Roger is survived by a loving family: his wife of 61 years, Diane Haugen Sherwood, of Los Angeles; his daughter, Alyssa Sherwood, and son-in-law, Eric Gudas, of Los Angeles; his son, Kevin Sherwood, and daughter-in-law, Jen Loughnan, of Wellington, New Zealand; and four grandchildren, Lily Gudas, and Freya, Charlie, and Arlo Sherwood.
Born in Portland, Oregon to Margaret Underwood and Andrew W. Sherwood, Roger Sherwood grew up in Portland, spending summers working on the Sherwood Family Nursery in Gresham, Oregon, along with his older brother, Duane. He graduated from Washington High School and joined the Marine Corps; after serving three years, he entered the University of Oregon School of Architecture. He graduated in June, 1961 and married Diane Haugen Sherwood on August 12, 1961. They moved to New York City, where Roger studied at Columbia University and received a graduate degree in Architecture. After several years in New York City, they moved to Ithaca, New York, where Roger received a graduate degree in City Planning from Cornell University. He subsequently taught at Cornell as an Assistant Professor. In 1974, they moved to Los Angeles, where Roger taught at the University of Southern California, School of Architecture for over forty years, from 1974 to 2017.
Roger was a registered architect with a small practice designing national, international, and local projects, competitions and small private commissions. During his tenure at the University of Southern California, School of Architecture, Roger served as the director of the graduate Architecture program, the director of the Overseas Study Program in France, and coordinator of various studio programs. Roger was known for his research and writing about international multi-family housing. His work resulted in several books, including Modern Housing Prototypes (Harvard University Press, 1978), Courtyard Housing in Los Angeles, co-authored with Stefanos Polyzoides and James Tice (Princeton Architectural Press, 1992), and www.HousingPrototypes.org: 104 Case Studies (edited by Glenn Williams and published in April, 2022).
As a faculty member in the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California, Roger was a long-time champion of overseas travel programs for architecture students. He played leadership roles in the development, curriculum, and teaching at the School's overseas program in France, and he also taught in the Italy program. Roger firmly believed in the value of cultural immersion aspects of the curriculum, and he led students to deeply explore the differences in the types of housing found in Europe and the United States. The family is working with the USC School of Architecture to establish a program in his honor to support student travel experiences.

Donations may be made by check to "USC School of Architecture" with "Roger Sherwood memorial" in the memorandum line.