Milton Arthur Stricker

Milton Arthur STRICKER Born in rural Northern Wisconsin March 9, 1926, Milton passed away peacefully in the company of his family on June 1st at the age of 82. Even as Milton transcended the poverty of his childhood years to achieve great success as an architect, he always remained true to his modest roots and traditional values. He left Wisconsin to enlist in the Navy in 1944 and first came to the Northwest as a Lieutenant at the Bremerton shipyard. After his discharge from the Navy, Milton began his formal education in architecture at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. There he met his future wife and companion of 56 years, Eunice Goerss. Disillusioned with the traditional curriculum of the time, and remaining true to his independent nature and non-conformist style, Milton left Carnegie on the eve of his graduation and joined the Frank Lloyd Wright Fellowship at Taliesin West in Arizona in 1951. The teachings of Wright and the Taliesin Fellowship made a lasting impression on the young architect who put them into practice throughout his prolific career in organic architecture. Milton moved to Seattle in 1953 and later opened his own practice in 1962. During the next 36 years he completed over 130 projects throughout the Northwest, Alaska, and New Mexico. Incorporating insights on organic design gleaned from his time with Mr. Wright, Milton matched each project uniquely to its individual site in order to naturally integrate the building's structure with its surrounding environment. Milton's recognition of abstractions of natural forms as "the beginning of architecture" yielded a steady stream of rendering, sketches, paintings, and woodworks. In addition to his relentless determination to be true to his beliefs and high standards of integrity, Milton is also remembered by friends and family as fun to be around, possessing a gentle and charitable nature, hilarious sense of humor and considerable self-taught artistic abilities. He was a man who was able to go his own way and make it work for him. Milton is survived by his wife Eunice, his four children, Paul, Hope, Peter and wife Yuriko Ueda, Susan Stricker and husband Frank Gorman. Milton also leaves behind his two sisters Bernice Vertner (Loren) and Frieda Bauch, and four grandchildren, Aaron and Adam Stricker and Nate and Alex Gorman. A memorial Service will be held 11:00 Saturday June 14th at Central Lutheran Church, 1710 11th Avenue, Seattle, 98122. Remembrances can be made to the Capital Hill Community Lunch or the Lutheran Peace Fellowship, at the same address, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, or the food bank of your choice.