Cross, Clarence
(born: 1916)Clarence Cross, an architect born in Allensville, KY, was the son of Ameila Tinsley Cross and Napoleon Cross. Napoleon was a farmer who supported his family of five that included Amelia's mother Jane Tinsley, according to the 1920 U.S. Federal Census. Clarence Cross was the husband of Mary E. Cross.
In 1927, the family moved to Kokomo, IN, where Clarence completed high school. He was a student at Tuskegee Institute [now Tuskegee University], completing one year before enlisting in the U.S. Army on January 14, 1942 at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana, according to his enlistment record. After receiving an Honorable Discharge from the Army in 1946, Cross enrolled again at Tuskegee Institute and was a 1949 architecture graduate.
He was a registered architect in Ohio and Indiana and had a private practice while also employed in Civil Engineering at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH. He retired from the Air Force Base in 1971.
Cross was a founding partner in 1969 of the firm Cross, Curry, de Weaver, Randall and Associates; the firm was dissolved in 1997. Some of Cross's work includes his role as designer of the Second Baptist Church in Ford City, PA and the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Dayton.
For a more detailed account of Clarence Cross and his accomplishments, see African American Architects, a biographical dictionary, 1865-1945, edited by D. S. Wilson.