Obituary: Thomas A. Dutton – Not a Departure but a Legacy of Dialogic Learning in Architecture

At the end of September 2017, through an electronic circular from the Association of Architectural Educators, I came to know a few months late that Professor Thomas A. Dutton has passed away in June 2017. Died at an age of 65 years, with his departure as an influential educator, architect, and community enabler, a great void and a vacuum in architectural education as an academic discipline is created. A Cincinnati Professor of Community Engagement at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, Tom left a legacy of body of writings, approaches to learning, fervent commitment, and, most important, countless professionals who, under his teachings, have acquired critical abilities to become agents of transformations of the communities they serve towards spatial justice and social impartiality. It is with great sadness that I write this Obituary for Tom Dutton. I reflect on my interaction with him in two occasions and present analytical contemplation on the design studio ideals he established.