[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 10 (Thursday, January 18, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E61]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              REMEMBERING ARCHITECT ROBERT BONNER NORCROSS

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                            HON. STEVE COHEN

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 18, 2024

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay my deep respects to 
Robert Bonner Norcross, a Memphis architect known for his designs of 
many Memphis landmarks, who died from complications of Early Onset 
Alzheimer's on December 27 at the age of 62. A native of Tyronza, 
Arkansas, and a graduate of Marked Tree High School and Fay Jones 
School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas, Mr. 
Norcross became a principal in the architecture firm Looney Rick Kiss 
and led projects that transformed the city of Memphis and nearby 
communities for three decades. He was licensed in seven states and 
perhaps best known for his work on AutoZone Park, named the Minor 
League Ballpark of the Year in 2009 by Baseball America, and the FedEx 
Forum, home of the NBA Grizzlies and the University of Memphis Tigers. 
He had a hand in South City, the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital 
expansion, Soulsville Charter School and Multipurpose Building, Central 
Station, many homes in Harbor Town, the University of Memphis Men's 
Basketball Training Center, AutoZone's headquarters and the FedEx World 
Technology Center in Collierville. In 2020, he won the prestigious 
Francis Gassner Award from the American Institute of Architects--
Memphis Chapter. Active in his Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal Church and 
its Vestry St. Columba outreach ministry in West Tennessee, Mr. 
Norcross was also a board member of the Boys & Girls Club of Memphis, 
Leadership Memphis, the Memphis Leadership Academy of Arkansas, Dean's 
Circle at Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, and was a 
founding committee member of the Regional Memphis Design Center. I 
attended his service at Grace-St. Luke's on Saturday which was packed 
to the walls. I read the eulogy written by his children and will never 
look at butterflies again in the same way. I express my sincere 
condolences to his wife of 37 years, Jill, and their children Phoebe 
and Brandt, his colleagues and his many friends. He led a good life, 
but he left us too soon.

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