William Emerson

William Emerson (October 16, 1873 – May 4, 1957) was an American architect and the first dean of the MIT School of Architecture from 1932 to 1939. He was instrumental in establishing a city planning department at MIT.

Biography Emerson was born in New York City. His parents, of English and Dutch descent, were Susan Tompkins and John Haven Emerson, a medical doctor. His father's family included poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, the young Emerson's great uncle.

Emerson graduated from Harvard College in 1895, where he was a Harvard Crimson editor and Hasty Pudding Club comedian. In conjunction with the planning program, Emerson's seven-year deanship shifted the school from pure design practice to a broader focus on public policy and social issues.

Emerson served as the chair of the Unitarian Service Committee in the 1940s and as Vice President of the Byzantine Institute of America. He died on May 4, 1957, in Cambridge.

Emerson married Frances White, and they resided at her grandfather's house on Brattle Street. She died shortly before him on March 10, 1957. They are buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.