Roland Walter Kluver

Roland was an architect, builder, musician, teller of jokes, and beloved husband, father,

grandfather, and great grandfather.

Roland grew up on a farm in Platte Center, Nebraska. As a teenager, Roland was influenced by

a co-op student from Antioch College who was working on a Rural Electrification Program.

Roland decided to head to Yellow Springs, Ohio to study engineering at Antioch. In his senior

year at Antioch, Roland met Susan Edelstein. They fell in love and later married at the Friends

Meeting House in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Roland was studying architecture at the

Harvard Graduate School of Design.

After graduating from Harvard in 1959, Roland joined The Architects Collaborative (TAC), a firm

founded in 1945 by Walter Gropius and a small group of young architects. His first job at TAC

was to work on buildings at the University of Baghdad in Iraq. He became a director in 1978,

and worked at TAC for 38 years. Among the many scientific, health and governmental buildings

that Roland managed he was particularly glad to contribute to the Boston architectural scene

with projects at Childrens’ Hospital and the JFK Federal Office Building. In 1976, Roland opened

a new TAC office in Kuwait where he participated in the design and construction of scientific

buildings throughout the Middle East. In 1987, Roland left TAC to become President of

Tobishima Associates, in New York. Upon his return from New York in 1992, he oversaw the

construction of the Moakley Federal Courthouse in Boston.

In his own words, Roland was first an engineer and builder, and second a designer. He was a

modernist, valuing function over form. Never a fan of “tour de force” architecture, he instead

gravitated to the challenge of designing highly functional buildings that met the needs of

complex users, such as hospitals and universities.

In 1973, Roland was able to connect with his farming boyhood, when he and Susan bought an

old farm property in Chilmark, Massachusetts. Restoring that 1830’s farmhouse and barn

became a passion that filled his days for decades. Chilmark eventually became their true home,

where they made great friends and joined the island community they loved. In Chilmark, Roland

worked as an owner’s representative, managing construction on several island homes. He also

served on the Chilmark Affordable Housing Committee.

Roland leaves his wife Susan, sisters Bea and Mary, daughters Sarah and Jean, grandchildren

Dario and Sianni, great grandson Zuli, and many beloved in-laws and nephews and nieces and

cousins.

We will remember him in his overalls, blue eyes shining and white hair blowing, riding his

vintage John Deere tractor over the meadow on Middle Road.

Donations in Roland's honor may be made to the Island Housing Trust of Martha's Vineyard at the following link. https://www.ihtmv.org/donate/