Ellis F. Lawrence Medal
The Ellis F. Lawrence Medal is awarded each year by the dean and the faculty of the UO School of Architecture and Allied Arts to a distinguished alumnus or alumna. Recipients are individuals whose professional and personal achievements embody the integrity, educational philosophy, and commitment to their chosen fields as exemplified by Lawrence, an outstanding teacher, leader, and nationally respected architect. Lawrence served as dean for thirty-two years from the founding of the school in 1914.
2012 Ellis F. Lawrence Medal honors
Ranachith (Ronnie) Yimsut
Presentation of the Medal will take place at the A&AA Commencement Ceremony, Monday, June 18, 2012 at 3:00 p.m. on the UO campus.
Above: Ronnie Yimsut with design drawings for Bakong Technical College, Siem Reap, Cambodia.
Originally from the Angkor Wat/Siem Reap area of Cambodia, Ronnie Yimsut is a sole survivor of a Killing Fields attack that slaughtered most of his family and villagers. He fled alone at age 15 to a Thai refugee camp and eventually settled in Oregon and attended Beaverton High School.
Today, Yimsut works as a senior landscape architect for U.S. Forest Service Region 9 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in an office that covers twenty states from Minnesota and Missouri to Maine and Massachusetts. Yimsut, a member of the Technical Service Team, designs and plans National Forest recreation and tourist sites and conducts environmental impact studies on landscape ecologies and ecosystems. He is called on to help reclaim or conserve resources that have been damaged by floods or fires, and he works to preserve many national forest scenic byways.
In addition to his professional work, much of Yimsut’s energy is invested in building a technical college in his Cambodian hometown where he is the program director and non-paid chairman of the board of Bakong Technical College. “Leaving a legacy for future generations is critically important for me,” he says. In 1993, he began formulating the idea for the college. Yimsut’s dream for the school is to provide training for those looking to enter the professional workforce. Three of the seven buildings were completed in 2009: a mess hall/community center, administration building, and IT/library building. The next phase under way is the business and operational side, culminating in a grand opening November 2013. He recently began promoting “sweatequitourism” to encourage participants to lend a hand in building the college. To learn more, visit http://dreamworldtoday.blogspot.com/2012/01/participate-in-btc-sweat-equitourism.html
Yimsut most recent book is a memoir, “Facing the Khmer Rouge: A Cambodian Journey.” His other books include “Journey to Freedom,” “In the Shadow of Angkor,” “Life is a Poem,” and “Children of Cambodia’s Killing Fields.”
The School of Architecture and Allied Arts is honored to present Ranachith (Ronnie) Yimsut with its highest alumni honor, the Ellis F. Lawrence Medal.
Above: Memoir published by Rutgers University Press.
Above: Ranachith (Ronnie) Yimsut reading from his memoir at Tsunami Books, Eugene in December 2011. Photo by Marti Gerdes.
Above: 2009 Rotary International Sweat Equity Trip volunteers.
Past Recipients
2011 Clifford S. Ackley, '59
2010 Fred Koetter, F.A.I.A., '63
2009 Joe Hutshing, '80
2008 Tinker Hatfield, '77
2007 Julia Demichelis, '91
2006 Howard Backen, '62
2005 Rick Mather, RIBA, ‘61
2004 Peter Rothschild, FASLA, ’74
2003 James B. Cuno ’78
2002 Margo Grant Walsh ’60
2001 Elisabeth Walton Potter ’60
2000 Gordon W. Gilkey ’36
1999 James F. Ivory ’51
1998 Johnpaul Jones, FAIA, ‘67
