Professor Emeritus, Walter DeSalles Harris

Professor Emeritus, Walter DeSalles Harris, Jr. of 45 Killdeer Road, Hamden, passed peacefully, July 1, 2007. Born January 4, 1924 to Walter DeSalles Harris, Sr. and Violet Sioholm. He is survived by his wife, Joyce Peck Harris, two sons, Walter DeSalles Harris, III and his wife Janice Thomas of Hamden and Jonathan Lord Harris and his wife Renay Williams of Leonardo, New Jersey, grandsons David DeSalles Harris and Matthew Thomas Harris and a brother William Wadsworth Harris, 2nd of Killingworth, Connecticut. Professor Harris served in the US Navy during World War II in the Pacific. Since 1954 he has been a member of the faculty of the School of Architecture and Planning at Yale University. He has written three books and more than fifty articles on Latin America and United States housing and planning utilizing his extensive experience in these fields in Latin America and internationally elsewhere. His professional work in the United States included both private practice and consulting in city planning and housing. In 1969 Professor Harris was appointed Housing and Urban Affairs Advisor to Governor Nelson Rockefeller's Presidential Mission to Latin America. From 1966-1968 he served as Co-Chairman of an AID sponsored advisory board on higher education for the Dominican Republic: from 1961-1967 he was Principal Advisor for Housing and Planning to the Secretariat of the Organization of American States. He also served with the same organization in Bogota, Columbia, as Director of the Inter-American Housing and Planning Center. From 1955-1957 he was resident city planning and housing advisor for the International Cooperation Administration's mission to Guatemala. Recently he has also been Principal advisor to the Mid-State Regional Planning Agency in Connecticut and visiting Professor of Architecture and Planning to the School of Architecture at Ohio University. Professor Harris has taught architecture and city planning at Carnegie-Mellon University and has lectured at numerous universities. He has completed planning studies for various towns in New England and in Latin America, including the design of two new towns, prototype housing designs, and housing market studies. Professor Harris received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Yale University in architecture and city planning. In 1964 he was made a Commander of the Order of Merit for Distinguished Service by the Republic of Peru. Services are private and under the direction of BEECHER & BENNETT, 2300 Whitney Ave., Hamden. Family will receive guests at 12 p.m. on July 5th at The Mary Wade Home, 118 Clinton Ave. New Haven, CT. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Mary Wade home.