MR. KENNETH GROGGS January 20, 1931 - May 6, 1987 ARCHITECT Mr. Kenneth Groggs was one of the major forces in the Midwest architectural community for three decades. He helped redevelop blighted urban neighborhoods viewed as unsalvageable by city agencies, contributed to an unprecedented growth of minority architects in the profession, and assisted African Americans in receiving large city and state design and construction contracts. A native Kansan who came to Chicago in the late 1950s, Mr. Groggs was the first and only Black State Architect. In that position, from 1972 to 1975, he headed the state's largest building program and granted more contracts to minority architects than ever before.

Mr. Groggs left that post to serve as Director of the Bureau of Architecture for the Chicago Public Schools for five years. Directing a $500 million program and 92 employees, he was responsible for all architectural, structural, electrical, mechanical engineering and drafting activities for more than 600 buildings involved in the largest rehabilitation project in the school system's history. Named a lifetime Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Mr. Groggs in 1981 formed his own company, Groggs & Associates, which rehabbed schools in Kansas and designed power plants in Ohio. Mr. Groggs helped design O'Hare Airport and Mercy Hospital and founded the National Organization of Minority Architects.