William Lindemulder (Bill) was born April 27, 1933 and died peacefully at home surrounded by his family on January 14, 2022. Preceded in death by wife Ann Jenkins Lindemulder. Survived by his loving children Kirsten (Dean), Paul and Matthew and grandchildren Jacob, Lucien and Vivian. Also survived by his beloved companion, Jan Harvey.
William (known as Bill) loved architecture, sculpture, travelling and his family. He was born in Chicago to Dutch immigrants Teresa Marie Sturrus and Charles Lindemulder. The family moved to Phoenix, AZ when Bill was 12. Bill was that state’s top-scoring high school senior in 1951, which led him to a scholarship to Harvard College.
Bill graduated from Harvard in 1955 and from the Harvard School of Design in Architecture in 1958. Subsequently he studied architecture on a Fullbright Scholarship in Delft, Netherlands. In 1964 he brought his family to Rangoon, Burma, where he was chief architect on the Rangoon University project. He received a Wheelwright fellowship during that time, which allowed him to travel throughout Southeast Asia photographing various important religious and cultural sites. His collection of Bagan (Burma/Myanmar) photos are archived with the Harvard Peabody Museum. Other international work included design and urban planning in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Djakarta, Indonesia, and Baghdad, Iraq.
As a principal in the firm of Sert, Jackson and Associates, he was responsible for Peabody Terrace, which graces the Cambridge skyline to this day. His family never failed to point out “Bill’s buildings” as they drove by on Memorial Drive. His last large project was the Big Dig, where he served as the Chief Architect/Urban Planner.
He said of his work on that project, “My job was to help figure out what to do with the land that was liberated once you took the structure [of the elevated highway] down.”
He was a thoughtful and committed member of the Old Cambridge Baptist Church; perhaps one of the longest living members since he began attending services in 1951 as an undergraduate at Harvard. His devotion to OCBC was motivated by his deep faith and a commitment to a spiritual life lived in community. Current pastor Cody Sanders said of Bill, “There are many people about whom it can be said, ‘The church wouldn't be the same today without his presence in it.’ But that is true for Bill not only because of the relationships he cultivated with so many in the congregation over the last seventy years. It is also true of the physical structure of the church itself. Bill's gifts as an architect were employed again and again over Bill's long years of service on the Building/Long Range Planning Team.”
One of Bill’s many attributes was a deep sense of acceptance for all. All three of his children remain grateful for his ongoing and unconditional support of their careers and life choices, and endeavor to pay that gift forward.
And finally, his longtime dear friend Harvey Cox says of him that he “had a gift for friendship” and that he was a very good listener. We will miss him so very much, and are constantly grateful for having had him in our lives.
A celebration of his life will be held at the Old Cambridge Baptist Church on Sunday, May 15, 2022, at 2 pm. Address is OCBC, 1151 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA, 02138.