Michael E. Emrick

1945 - 2018

Michael E. Emrick

- - Michael Emrick passed away suddenly on July 3, 2018 in Marbella, Spain. He was born on February 25, 1945, the son of the late Michael Emrick and the late Frances Zagar Emrick. He is survived by his husband, Bill Hollings, sister, Kathy Petyo, nephew, Michael Petyo, and many dear cousins, friends, and neighbors. Michael practiced architecture for fifty years, from St. Louis where he graduated from Washington University in 1968, to Malaysia where he served as a Peace Corps volunteer and taught architecture, to New York where he received an MA in Historic Preservation from Columbia University, and finally in Nashville. Michael came to Tennessee in 1978 to work on the Master Plan for the Rugby Colony, for which he received a national award. From Rugby he came to Nashville where he practiced for the rest of his life. Although he worked on historic structures in many states, including seven National Historic Landmarks, nineteen National Register Historic Districts, and nearly 100 National Register listed properties, and across this city and state, his passion was for Germantown, a name he coined shortly after arriving in a decaying section of Nashville north of the Capitol. During his forty years in Germantown he did design work on sixty projects involving forty buildings - nearly all the surviving historic structures in the neighborhood, as well new development. He was involved in every Oktoberfest from the first in 1980 to his last in 2017, served for many years on the parish council of the Church of the Assumption, served more or less constantly on the Historic Germantown board, and was recognized as the unofficial "Mayor of Germantown". In recent years he was highly amused to see Germantown referenced as "a quaint urban village" and the "Germantown restaurant district", descriptions which would not have been possible without the efforts of him and other early urban pioneers. Michael's work in Nashville was recognized by the receipt of ten restoration awards from the Metropolitan Historical Commission and their award to him in 2005 of the Lifetime Achievement Award. He loved traveling and visited countries on six continents, loved reading and his beloved Germantown Book Club, loved being with friends and family, loved greeting neighbors and strangers from his front porch, and loved his cats. Michael will be deeply missed by many. Memorials, if desired, may be made to Historic Germantown, Inc., P. O. Box 281074, Nashville, TN 37228; Historic Rugby, Inc, P O. Box 8, Rugby, TN 37733; or a charity of one's choice. A Celebration of Life will be held in Germantown at a later date in the Fall.