A Tribute to Weld Coxe
Weld Coxe • Founder of The Coxe Group • c. 1976
In the August 2011 issue of the SMPS Marketer, the Editorial Committee remembered Weld Coxe, Hon. AIA, FSMPS, and the 1989 recipient of the SMPS Marketing Achievement Award — and saluted and celebrated his exceptional life, which ended on March 15, 2011.
Editor Randle Pollock, FSMPS, wrote:
“Widely respected, loved, and admired by many, he was peerless as an author, champion, colleague, friend, leader, mentor, and even an architectural patron. He was consultant extraordinaire to 2,000 firms, including more than half of the AIA Firm Award winners, and to tens of thousands of practitioners. Not incidentally, he was also a founder of SMPS and held membership #3.
“Never before have we focused on a single person — nor are we likely to ever again. That’s because there has never been anyone who helped define and shape the profession we practice as did Weld.
“Contributing editor, Marjanne Pearson, who knew Weld personally, curated our special tribute with great insight, intelligence, and skills — qualities of her work we have come to know so well. We thank her for reaching out to people he knew and worked with throughout his career, some of whom you may know of in other contexts. You will enjoy reading how deeply Weld influenced so many different people. Not just his partners or clients but also some of SMPS’s most distinguished and beloved members, who knew him back in the day. Only here, in this first draft of a future biography, can you read it all.
“I knew of Weld, a living legend at the time I entered the field. What I came to appreciate quickly was his impact on people I respected and who adored him. I always loved that he hired Robert Venturi — one of the greatest architectural theorists of the 20th century and a Pritzker Prize winner — to design houses on Block Island, off the Rhode Island coast. That was the site of an unforgettable SMPS National Board retreat in 2004, when I was president, but it was scheduled for the week after my wedding. I didn’t make the meeting or see the house, but I did have a great wedding.
“For those of you who knew or knew of Weld, we hope this set of remembrances rings true. For those of you who did not. know him, we hope this tribute introduces you to someone who gets and deserves much of the credit for defining our roles in the design and construction industry, whatever they may be. Without Weld, your job would not exist, nor would SMPS, and certainly not this journal.”
SMPS Board Retreat • 2004
“That was the site of an unforgettable SMPS National Board retreat in 2004, when I was president, but it was scheduled for the week after my wedding.hatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
Coxe-Hayden Venturi Houses • Block Island RI • 2004
— Introduction by Randle Pollock, Editor • SMPS Marketer, the Journal of the Society for Marketing Professional Services
— Post by Marjanne Pearson
LEARN MORE
A Tribute to Weld Coxe – curated by Marjanne Pearson • Marketer – The Journal of the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS)
List of SMPS Presidents 1974–2024 + Weld Coxe Marketing Achievement Award Winners 1988–2023
