James Arthur Scheeler

BRUNSWICK- James A. Scheeler, FAIA, died peacefully at his home in Brunswick, Maine, at the age of 97 on September 23, 2025. He was born December 20, 1927, the son of Isabella Jane (Steele) and Aman B. Scheeler of the village of Graymont, Illinois. Jim attended a one-room schoolhouse in Graymont and graduated from Pontiac Township High School (1945). He remembered that in this small village there were 20 mothers who kept an eye on all the children.

On September 2, 1950, following service in the United States Navy at the end of World War II, he married Barbara Jean Lloyd. He returned to the University of Illinois where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in architecture with highest honors (1951) and a Master of Science degree in architecture (1952). In 1953 he was awarded both a Fulbright and a Francis J. Plym Fellowship in Architecture, which enabled him and Jean to travel extensively in Europe. Jim undertook graduate study in civic design and town planning at the University of Liverpool, England.

Upon his return to the United States, he joined the Air Force Academy design team in the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill under the direction of Walter Netsch, FAIA. After starting their family in Chicago, Illinois, with the birth of their son James Erich (1957), Jim and Jean settled in Champaign, Illinois, and continued to grow the family with the birth of son Carl Aman (1960) and daughter Orissa Jane Elizabeth (Lisa) (1961).

He practiced architecture as a principal in Richardson, Severns, Scheeler & Associates, Champaign, Illinois, from 1958 until 1973. The firm acted as planning and design consultants to the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign Campus and Chicago Medical Campus) and was recognized for its work in institutional and campus planning and the design of college and university educational and housing facilities. He was principal in charge of award-winning projects such as the Illinois Street Residence Halls (Award of Merit, CFA/HHFA, 1964) and the Undergraduate Library (First Honor Award, HEW/AIA/EFL, 1966). During that period, Jim also served on both the undergraduate and graduate design faculty of the University of Illinois School of Architecture.

Continually active in both the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and community affairs, he was president of the Central Illinois Chapter AIA and a member of the Illinois Council AIA in 1970 and was secretary of the Illinois Council AIA in 1971. In Champaign he had been a member of the city planning commission (1964-1971) and was its chairman from 1969-1971. He was also a member of the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission from 1967-1971.

After moving to Washington, D.C. in 1971, with his wife and three children, Jim served the AIA in several executive staff positions including AIA executive vice president, president of the AIA Corporation, president of Production Systems for Architects & Engineers, and president of the AIA Research Corporation. He served on the Board of the National Center for a Barrier Free Environment from 1978-1981 and was its president in 1981.

Jim retired from the AIA staff in 1990 but continued, as a volunteer, to serve its interests as Resident Fellow, International Relations. Until November 2002, he served as the co-director and secretary of the International Union of Architects Professional Practice Commission, continuing as a member of that Commission until 2011. AIA and the Architectural Society of China acted as joint secretariat for the Professional Practice Commission. He served as AIA's representative on the UNESCO-UIA Validation Council (2000-2009), the UIA Education Commission (2000-2011), and was elected and served two three-year terms as a member of the UIA Council (equivalent to its Board of Directors) from 2005 to 2011.

In 2007 after an extended friendship, he married Nancy S. Kneece in Reston, Virginia. She was thereafter the focus of his life. They traveled extensively both internationally and domestically to visit family scattered all over the United States. Devoted "foodies," they searched out fine cuisine wherever they went. They moved to Brunswick, Maine, in 2023 to be closer to family.

He was a talented artist, draftsman, and designer, continuing his work on watercolor paintings and teaching art to his grandchildren well into his later years. He had a lifelong love of the ocean and sailing, even once contemplating a career with the U.S. Navy. He was a skilled and passionate chef and baker of pies benefiting all those within his sphere of friends and family.

Jim was a kind and gentle man of God, committed to the Episcopal faith his entire life. He served as an altar boy in his youth and was active in the vestry of the Emmanuel Memorial Episcopal Church in Champaign Illinois (1964-1968) and St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Reston, Virginia (1983-1985 and 1999- 2001). He joined St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Brunswick, Maine, in 2023. As a lifelong learner, he maintained a voracious appetite for theological studies.

Jim was predeceased by his parents, Aman and Jane Scheeler; his sisters, Martha Horton and Mary Crane; and his wife Barbara Jean Scheeler (1992) and his daughter Lisa Scheeler.

He is survived by his wife Nancy S. Scheeler; his sons, James Erich and Carl Aman; his sister Sarah Spaulding; his grandchildren Peyton, Christopher, Heather, Aly, James, and Robert; and stepdaughters Cate Wnek and Emily Whittaker; step-grandchildren Tucker, Finn, Brooke, and Charlie; and three great-grandchildren.

On his 97th birthday last December, Jim recited from memory A.A. Milne's children's poem "The End." A child declares "But now I am six, I'm as clever as clever / So I think I'll be six now Forever and ever." Then he blew out all the candles on his favorite homemade chocolate birthday cake.

Jim's memorial service will be held on Monday September 29th at 10AM at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 27 Pleasant Street, Brunswick, with a reception to follow.

Arrangements and guidance are in the care of Stetson's Funeral Home and Cremation Care, 12 Federal Street, Brunswick, Maine.