Frederick Doveton Nichols

Frederick Doveton Nichols, FAIA, was an architect, educator, and historian.  He studied for two years at Colorado College and completed his undergraduate degree in fine arts from Yale University in 1935.  He joined the National Park Service, becoming regional director of the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS).  He became director of architectural studies at the University of Hawaii in 1941 and after service in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II, he returned to Hawaii.  In 1950 he became a professor and later chairman of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia until his retirement in 1982.  Nichols wrote several books on the architectural history of Georgia and Virginia and on Thomas Jefferson as a designer.  He was a Guggenheim fellow in 1963 and received the University of Virginia Thomas Jefferson Award in 1979 as well as other fellowships and awards.  Nichols was a member of the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, the American Institute of Architects Task Force on the U.S. Capitol West Front, the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission, and the Monticello Restoration Society.