Robert Ralph Harvey (2024)

CARRIGAN, EDJANG, HARVEY, MATHAU, MCBEATH

Posted By: Linda Smith
Date: 1/25/2025 at 12:50:57

Des Moines Cremation
Des Moines, Iowa

January 20, 1938 - September 8, 2024

Robert Ralph Harvey, 86, of Des Moines passed away September 8, 2024. A Celebration of Life open house will be held at the private home of his daughter Suzanne on Saturday, November 2. For details, please reach out to Ann, Beth or Suzanne to let us know you are coming.

Bob was born on January 20, 1938 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to Ralph Robertson and Mildred (McBeath) Harvey. He grew up in Winterset, Iowa.

Bob graduated from Iowa State University (ISU) in 1961 in Landscape Architecture. He began his teaching career at Rutgers University. While at Rutgers he commuted to the University of Pennsylvania to obtain is Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture. In 1965 he began teaching landscape architectural history at Michigan State before returning to ISU in 1968 to teach landscape architecture history and preservation and other design courses until his retirement in 1999.

Bob taught at Thames Polytechnic School of Architecture, Hammersmith, London, United Kingdom in 1974-75. During that year of teaching he established contacts that would allow him to take ISU students back to the UK on 9 separate study trips over the years.

For over five decades he haunted antiquarian bookstores in the United States, Canada and England amassing a library of over 2,000 volumes. This library was used for teaching, research, and in his professional practice of historic landscape preservation or conservation and rehabilitation. The library now resides between the Parks Library at Iowa State University and the Iowa Masonic Library in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

He worked for the National Park Service over the years on projects that included the Missouri Botanic Garden HABS Project, Lincoln Home National Historic Site, and Meridian Hill Park HABS Project. He was a member of The Association for Preservation Technology, The Alliance for Historic Landscape Preservation, and a Fellow in the American Society of Landscape Architects.

In 1961, Bob met Ann Carrigan on a blind date – that neither of them really wanted to go on – on his birthday. They married after Ann graduated in 1963. They had two daughters Elizabeth “Beth” and Suzanne.

Bob was an Eagle Scout, a member of Theta Chi fraternity, and a member of The Masonic Lodge and had obtained the 32nd degree in the Scottish Rite.

He enjoyed spending his spare time working on projects, building three different additions to their house in Ames and landscaping the yard. He was always thinking about the next project and always learning. He enjoyed travel, collecting books, drawing and painting, gardening, photography, woodworking, carving, and the family dogs.

Bob was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by wife Ann, daughters Elizabeth “Beth” Harvey, Minneapolis, MN; Suzanne (Mauricio) Matheu, Urbandale, IA; and grandson Daneil Edjang, Urbandale, IA.

Gifts and memorials can directed to the Landscape Architecture Fund, Iowa State University Foundation, 2505 University Blvd., Ames, IA 50010 foundation.iastate.edu or to Iowa Public Television, iowapbs.org/support/give/memorial

Madison Obituaries maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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