Jon Stidger Emerson

Jon Stidger Emerson, age 89, died on March 2, 2025. Jon lived as a gifted artist, teacher, mentor, and practitioner, and, along with his caring humanity, he had a profound impact on generations of students, clients and friends alike. His life and award-winning career were devoted to the passionate pursuit of human expression in the arts and design.

Over the decades, Jon's firm successfully completed a variety of award-winning planning and design projects, including the historically significant sites of Magnolia Mound, Shadows on the Teche, Bayou Bend, Greenwood Cemetery masterplans for Hilltop Arboretum, Pennington Headquarters, LITE Technology Center (with ESkew Dumez Ripple and Guidry Beazley), University of Louisiana Art Museum (with Eskew Dumez Ripple), New Orleans' City Park Botanical Garden, Baton Rouge's Main Library, and many urban and rural residences in the region.

Born in Berkeley, California, Jon received Associate of Arts and Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degrees from the University of California, Berkeley. In 1962 he received a Master of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he met his future husband, the late Wayne Womack. Jon worked for the eminent firm, Sasaki, Dawson, DeMay and Associates, Watertown, MA, (now Sasaki Associates) where he managed the landscape design of the modernist masterpiece, John Deere Headquarters, Moline, IL. In 1965, Jon was awarded the Prix de Rome in Landscape Architecture and spent the following two years pursuing self-directed study at the American Academy in Rome. Jon came to Baton Rouge to teach at LSU in 1967, where he became full professor and served as coordinator of the landscape architecture program. In 1998 he retired from the School. In 2000 Jon was elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects for his exemplary contributions to practice and teaching.