Résumé

Draftsman, Neptune and Thomas, Architects, Pasadena, CA, c. 1956-1958. An instructor at Carnegie Institute of Technology, John Knox Shear (1917-1958) assisted Collier in finding employment of Neptune and Thomas. Joe Thomas (1915- also attended Carnegie Tech.

Architect, Santa Paula, CA, c. 1958-1960. Architect, DeMars and Reay, Architects, Berkeley, CA, c. 1960-1962. During his time with DeMars and Reay, Collier collaborated with the firm of Wurster, Bernardi and Emmons (W, B and E) on the Golden Gateway Redevelopment project.

Architect/Partner, Van Bourg, Nakamura and Associates, Oakland, CA, c. 1963-1976; Collier worked first in Van Bourg, Nakamura and Associates' office in the Claremont Hotel on the Berkeley/Oakland border. This office later moved to a location on 13th Street in Oakland. Van Bourg, Nakamura and Associates specialized in school design.

College Architect and Campus Planner, The Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA, 1979-1994. Collier retired in 1994.

College

B.Arch., Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, PA, 1947-1952. At the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Jon Collier was friends with Allan J. Gelbin (1929-1994), who left school after his first year to join Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin Fellowship. Gelbin later had an architectural career in New Canaan and Norwich, CT.

Master of Fine Arts in Architecture, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 1953-1954; at Princeton, Collier studied with Jean Labatut (1899-1986).

College Awards

Collier attended the Princeton Graduate College after being awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship.

Relocation

Born in Manhattan, Collier's family grew up in Clarence Stein's Sunnyside housing project in Queens, NY. The architectural theorist Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) resided at Sunnyside from 1925-1936 while Collier lived there. Collier spent his first 18 years living in the New York area; he visited the Museum of Modern Art frequently, and took drawing classes at the Brooklyn Museum. He left to attend college in Pittsburgh, PA, between 1947 until 1952. He then moved on to Princeton University where he spent 1953 and 1954.

He was drafted into the Army in 1954, and was stationed with the Construction and Engineering Division of the 7th Army in Munich, Germany during the next two years. The division worked in a former office building constructed by Hitler in Munich.

While he was away at college, his parents moved to Pasadena, CA, to be closer to his sister, Nancy Collier Holden. After the Army, Collier rejoined his family in Pasadena, living there for several years. He then relocated for work to Ventura County, and, subsequently, to the Bay Area for about 15 years. He moved to Olympia, WA, where he spent 17 years, from 1977 until 1994. He moved to Manson, WA, in 1998.

Parents

His parents were Jewish immigrants from the Baltic States. His father, Arthur Miles Kaalir, had his name changed at Ellis Island to "Collier" upon his entrance from Latvia.