Résumé

Partner, Nomland and Nomland, Architects, Los Angeles, CA.

College

Graduate, Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA, 1938.

B.Arch., University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, CA, 1941.

Relocation

Kemper Nomland, Jr., was born in Pasadena, CA, and, save for a few years spent in two conscientious objector work camps in Oregon, he spent his adult life in Southern CA. His parents, Kemper, Sr. and Elgie Barrington, both were born in North Dakota, his father having spent time in college and working in New York, NY. They married in Montana on 06/16/1915,and migrated to the Los Angeles area by the early 1920s. Kemper, Jr., attended secondary schools in Pasadena, and graduated from Pasadena City College.He then studied at the University of Southern California in architecture.

During World War II, he spent time at the Civilian Public Service (CPS) Camp #21 near Wyeth, OR, otherwise known as the "Cascade Locks Camp" which operated between 11/1941 and 07/1946. Nomland was then relocated to the Waldport Camp, CPS Camp #56, a place that concentrated a number of significant writers and artists, some of whom later constributed to the Beat Movement. The Northwest painter Morris Graves (1910-was one of the "campers" at Waldport. Supervised by the Mennonite Central Committee, Waldport operated between about 1942 until 1945.

As described in the Oregon Encyclopedia.org, those situated at the Cascade Locks Camp had multiple duties: "...[S]upervised by the U.S. Forest Service, [their responsibilities] included constructing roads and trails, maintaining campgrounds, working on telephone lines, felling snags, fighting fires, and building lookout towers. Some men were assigned the work of keeping the camp operating—that is, cooking meals, doing laundry, and handling administrative tasks required by the Selective Service and the Forest Service. During the summer, some of the men were sent to side camps to work on special projects and to locate them closer to potential forest fires." (See Jeffrey Kovac, The Oregon Encyclopedia.org, "Civilian Public Service Camp #21," accessed 08/07/2019.) These two camps developed interconnected literary and fine arts journals, The Illiterati at Cascade Locks and The Tide at Waldport. Waldport internees also developed their own press, the Untide Press, that published poetry volumes by various authors, including Glen Coffield (1917-1981), William Everson (1912-1994), and Kenneth Patchen (1911-1972). Kemper Nomland, Jr., designed some of the covers appearing on The Illiterati.

Those working in the Waldport Camp faced some dangerous conditions. "The main work of the Camp Waldport interns was the reforestation of Blodgett Peak Burn, a forest that had been heavily logged during the first World War and that had suffered devastating wildfires after the war. The work was often dangerous; five men died during the three years the camp was in operation (compared with a total of nineteen deaths throughout the entire camp system). Of all the camps in the system, Waldport was the only one located within the coastal zone blackout." (See Archives West.org, "Camp Waldport records, 1943-1945," accessed 08/07/2019.)

In 1950, Nomland moved to the Mount Washington district of Los Angeles. Here, he erected his own residence, a design arrayed on three floors and designed for a hillside site.

The architect passed away at age 90 while residing at an assisted living residence in Long Beach, CA.

Parents

His father was the noted architect Kemper Nomland, Sr., (born 08/30/1892 in Buxton, ND-d. 09/12/1976 in Los Angeles, CA) and Elgie S. Barrington (born 12/16/1892 in Grand Forks, ND-d. 02/02/1966 in Los Angeles County, CA)

Spouse

Kemper Nomland, Jr., married twice. He first wed Ella Kube Nomland (born 1914 in Germany-d. 1994 in Los Angeles, CA)

He remarried to Joan Westermeyer, who survived him at this death in 2009.

Children

He and Ella had a daughter, Erika Nomland Cilengir.