Graham “Jeff” Fountain Shannon Jr. (1946–2024)

Jeff Shannon was a professor at—and later dean of—the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville (Washington County). He co-founded the architectural firm now known as Polk Stanley Wilcox.

Graham “Jeff” Fountain Shannon Jr. was born in Little Rock (Pulaski County) on February 25, 1946, to Graham F. Shannon Sr. and Elisabeth Satterfield Shannon; he had a sister. His family moved often during his childhood, eventually settling in Star City (Lincoln County) and then in Conway (Faulkner County), where Shannon graduated from high school. He attended Hendrix College in Conway for two years and then UA, earning a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1970. He then spent four months working in the office of UA alumnus and internationally acclaimed architecture professor Fay Jones in Fayetteville.

After receiving his Master of Architecture in Urban Design from Rice University in 1973, Shannon worked at firms in Memphis, Houston, Palm Beach, and Little Rock. In 1977, he co-founded Polk Shannon Stanley (now Polk Stanley Wilcox) Architects, in Little Rock. Noteworthy Fayetteville projects to which Shannon contributed include the First National Bank (which later came to house the Pryor Center) and the Fayetteville Drug Store (which later became Experience Fayetteville), both on the downtown square. In the early 1970s, he was also project director for the master plan of the 1,100-acre Moss Creek Plantation Recreation/Residential Development in Hilton Head, South Carolina.

Shannon married Carole Klugh; they had two daughters.

In 1979, Shannon returned to UA to teach architecture. During his more than forty years in the Fay Jones School, he was a faculty member, served three stints as interim head of the Architecture Department, and, after a national search, was dean from 2000 to 2013. He retired from teaching in June 2023.

As a professor, Shannon taught design studios as well as lecture courses on the history of urban form and design thinking. Shannon received the Master Teaching Award in 1993 and the Outstanding Teacher Award in 1997, both from the school of architecture, and the University of Arkansas Teaching Academy Award for Outstanding Teaching in the Category of Creativity (1992). He was inducted into the University of Arkansas Teaching Academy in 1993. He was twice named by DesignIntelligence as a Most Admired Educator. In 2014, he was awarded the Fay Jones Gold Medal by the Arkansas chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA Arkansas).

A major accomplishment during Shannon’s tenure as dean was the renovation of the historic Vol Walker Hall and the addition of the Steven L. Anderson Design Center, designed by Fayetteville architect and AIA Gold Medalist Marlon Blackwell, with his firm, in partnership with Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects. The facility enabled design programs to share space and collaborate more closely as a school. As dean, he developed new programs to foster leadership and life skills among students and to enhance diversity within the school. He was instrumental in the development of the university’s Rome Center program. In 2009, Shannon served as the executive editor and founder of a publishing collaboration between the school and the University of Arkansas Press. Shannon oversaw and edited nine publications, including the award-winning Shadow Patterns: Reflections on Fay Jones and His Architecture, a book of essays published to honor the architecture and legacy of Fay Jones. Shannon also presented many scholarly papers on the work of Italian architect and artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. “The False Bernini of Codex Chigi” is based upon his close reading of an original sketch that he discovered while visiting the Vatican Library.

Shannon died in Fayetteville on December 30, 2024.

For additional information:
“Fine Lines and Late Nights: The Converging Histories of Vol Walker Hall and the Fay Jones School of Architecture.” University Libraries Digital Collections, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. https://digitalcollections.uark.edu/digital/collection/VolWalker (accessed December 18, 2025).

Obituary of Graham “Jeff” Fountain Shannon. Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, January 8, 2025. https://www.nwaonline.com/obituaries/2025/jan/08/graham-jeff-shannon-jr-2025-01-08/ (accessed December 18, 2025).

Shannon, Jeff. Shadow Patterns: Reflections on Fay Jones and His Architecture. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2017.

Gregory Herman and Michelle Parks
University of Arkansas School of Architecture