Ralph Ellis Gunn

1LT in 603rd Engineer Camouflage Bn : Operating Officer

ASN#917271

Born 1908 in FL, Died 1976

Artist

Other residence(s): Jacksonville, FL; Key West, FL; Avery Island/New Iberia, LA; Houston, TX

United States Army, European Theatre of Operations

Occupation before the war: landscape architect

College education before the war: U Mass Amherst; Harvard Graduate School of Design

Notes: Previously in Company A

Source: Company A Roster; 603rd roster in Seymour Nussenbaum's scrapbook, June 1943; Unit Shipment 10143-B, 23d HQ, from le Havre 23 June 1945; HQ & Service Company List of Men and Jobs; Roster of 23d HQ officers, from family of Oscar Seale; photo courtesy University of Massachusetts 1930 yearbook

Ralph Gunn was born on September 16, 1908 in Daytona, FL, the middle of three sons. His father was superintendent of an electric plant and later manager of an ice plant.

Ralph graduated from Duval High School in Jacksonville, FL and then went on to study landscape architecture at Massachusetts Agricultural College in Amherst, MA (now the University of Massachusetts Amherst). It was a long way to travel in 1926, but Ralph was really interested in landscapes, and the Massachusetts land grant college had the second oldest program in landscape architecture in the country, established in 1903.

After graduating from UMass, where he was a member of the Theta Chi fraternity, he went on to study at Harvard Graduate School of Design (the oldest landscape architecture program in the country); he received an MLA degree there in 1934.

A month after his graduation from Harvard, the island city of Key West, FL went bankrupt, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administration developed a concept for what was to become the Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden. It was designed to be a showplace for tourists during the Depression and bring much needed revenue to the city. The newly minted graduate was in the right place at the right time and became the designer for the property, which eventually grew to occupy 55 acres. It was to some extent an experimental garden; plants from all over the world were installed to learn which would survive in this environment. The garden opened to the public in 1936.*

Shortly after the Florida project was finished, he began working as chief engineer for E. A. McIlhenny** of Jungle Gardens Nursery in Avery Island, LA. In that capacity, he participated in large-scale design projects on the Baton Rouge campus of Louisiana State University and the Louisiana state government complex.

On September 18, 1940 Ralph married Esme Eleanor Patterson. She held a degree in library science from LSU and was working as the radio director in the children's department of the Houston Public Library. Ralph opened a branch of the McIlhenny nursery in Houston and the couple settled there. A month later, on October 16 1940, he registered for the draft.

By the fall of 1942, Ralph had entered the Army and received a commission as a lieutenant. His training landed him in an engineering role, and he was eventually assigned to the 603rd Engineer Camouflage Battalion—a good fit for his engineering skills and his creative eye (as well as his understanding of terrain which plays such a role in warfare).

He travelled to Europe with the unit, eventually serving as operating officer of the 603rd. After the war, he returned to Houston and embarked on what was to become an illustrious career as a landscape designer; he was one of the first practicing landscape architects in Texas. His wife Esme was undoubtedly a big help to him—she was involved in many society roles in Houston, including serving as president of the Junior League in 1946.

Ralph made a name for himself when he worked as both plantsman and landscape architect on large projects such as the Shamrock Hotel in Houston in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1952, he was hired by Harris Masterson III and his wife Carroll, a young and wealthy philanthropic couple, to design the landscape for their home, Rienzi, which is now part of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. The 4.4-acre landscape combines formal gardens and natural Texas woodlands.

In 1956, he began his largest single project: the restoration of the landscape for Rosedown Plantation in St. Francisville, LA. The techniques he used to document and restore the 18-acre landscape of the plantation established national standards in restoring historic landscapes.

Ralph designed more than 200 residential landscapes in Houston's exclusive River Oaks neighborhood. He is credited with bringing modernism and tropical plants to the Houston landscape in the period after the war. He also worked on non-residential properties, including the landscape design for several Houston churches. In addition, he worked on a number of historic Texas properties, including Liendo Plantation in Hempstead and Centennial House in Corpus Christi. He was also called to work on projects outside Texas and Louisiana, including the landscape architecture for the widely praised Robert and Elizabeth Fortune house in Indianapolis, IN, built in 1972.

Ralph died on March 4, 1975 in Houston and is buried, with Esme, at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston.

*The garden survives today; it currently occupies about 15 acres and still contains some of the original plantings from Ralph Gunn.

**The McIlhenny family has been making Tabasco sauce on Avery Island for five generations.