Mason Spiller Hicks, FAIA He was a retired architect. Services: Memorial, 2 p.m Wednesday 2-3-2010 in Highland Presbyterian Church. Visitation, following the service in the church's session room. Jernigan-Warren Funeral Home of Fayetteville. Mr. Mason Spiller Hicks, of Fayetteville, N.C. died peacefully at home Sunday January 31, 2010 with family at his side. He was 88 years old. Mason was born in Bluefield, West Virginia November 8, 1921 the youngest of four children of William Bane and Mary Baylor Hicks. His family moved to Buckhannon, West Virginia in 1931. At the age of 15 he built from black walnut a colonial four poster bed still in use by the family today. Mason was a 1939 graduate of Buckhannon-Upshur High School, where he went on to study mathematics and art at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, but was drafted in 1942 and sent by the Army Air Corps to study meteorology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mason and Grace Brown of Buckhannon, his sweetheart for ten years, were married in August 1943. After a distinguished career as a meteorologist in Europe during the Second World War, Mason was discharged as a captain in 1946. Under the GI Bill he went on to study architecture at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he earned a Masters in Architecture in 1949. In 1952 Mason and Grace and their growing family moved from Chapel Hill, NC to Fayetteville so Mace could practice architecture with Dan MacMillan. He left MacMillan Hicks MacMillan in 1857 to enter solo practice, and was responsible for numerous schools and public buildings during a career that spanned more than 40 years. The most notable of his credits are the Airport Terminal Building at Grannis Field, Cumberland Hall at FTCC, and the French, Allen and Tally houses. He also served the City of Fayetteville as a member and chairman of its planning Board in the 50s thru 70s. In 1986 Mason was selected by a jury of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects for advancement to membership in the College of Fellows. The Fellowship citation praised the quality of his design work and to his contributions to the region in the area of City Planning. Mason is survived by daughters, Jan Engel Hicks of Rocky Mount, NC and Baylor Hicks of Fayetteville, son, Daniel Mason Hicks of Fayetteville, granddaughter, Mary Grace Hicks of Washington, DC and grandson , Jacob Mason Hick of Lillington, NC . He was preceded in death by his siblings, their spouses, and his bride of 64 years. In lieu of flowers, donations in his name may be made to Nature Conservancy North Carolina, 4705 University Drive, Durham, NC 27707. Indicate "Mason Hicks" on a note line; a memorial fund in his name has been established, with all donations to be used for the purchase and preservation of land in North Carolina.