Adele W. Vaughan (c.1916-c.1955) H. Leland Vaughan (1905-1974)

Adele Wharton received a B.S. from the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Landscape Architecture in 1937 and an M.S. from the same department in 1938. H. Leland and Adele were married in 1937 and worked together in professional practice until Adele passed away ca. 1955.

Hollyngsworth Leland Vaughan was born in Alliance, Ohio, in 1905. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Ohio State in 1929 and then continued his studies as a Fellow at the Lake Forest Foundation. At Ohio State Vaughan studied with Thomas Church, who taught there from 1927 – 1929. Through extensive travel in Italy, France, and Spain, Vaughan developed a special affinity for the California landscape, and in the early 1930s he settled in Point Richmond, California.

Vaughan served as professor of landscape architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1930 to 1969 and oversaw the department’s critical years of growth from 1947 to 1962 as Chairman. During these years Vaughan increased faculty size and introduced the first visiting lecturers to the department. In the late 1940s, he contributed to the formation of an independent Department of City and Regional Planning and to the formation of the College of Environmental Design. Prior to his retirement in 1969, Vaughan served several years as Assistant Dean of the College of Environmental Design. His students remember him as “a young maverick, an inspiring teacher, who encouraged his students to keep an open mind and to form their own opinions” (Laurie, 1988). One of Vaughan’s most enduring achievements was his successful persuasion of Beatrix Farrand to bequeath her Reef Point Library comprised of rare books, historical documents, maps, prints, and plans to the Landscape Department.

Vaughan was an active member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Association of Landscape Architects, and served as Chairman of the education committee of the International Federation of Landscape Architects. He also served as a member of the City Planning Commission and the Parks and Recreation Commission of his own town of Pt. Richmond, CA.

Sources: Biographical Record compiled by R. B. Litton for American Society of Landscape Architects, 1977. Laurie, Michael. 75 Years of Landscape Architecture at Berkeley: an Informal History. Part I: The First 50 Years. Department of Landscape Architecture, University of California Berkeley, 1988 Violich, Francis, et al. In Memoriam. University of California, 1976. p. 125-127.