William Rutherford Mead

William Rutherford Mead was born on August 20, 1846, in Brattleboro, Vermont. He was related to President Rutherford B. Hayes, being a first cousin once removed, which influenced his middle name. His family included his sister, Elinor Mead, who married novelist William Dean Howells, and his younger brother, Larkin Goldsmith Mead, a sculptor. Mead's father was a prominent lawyer, and his mother was related to John Humphrey Noyes, the founder of the Oneida Utopian community.

Mead attended Norwich University for two years, where he became a member of the Alpha chapter of Theta Chi fraternity. He transferred to Amherst College in Massachusetts and graduated in 1867. Subsequently, he studied architecture under George Fletcher Babb in New York City, working in the office of Russell Sturgis.

In 1872, Mead partnered with Charles Follen McKim, a fellow architect from New York. Their collaboration resulted in one known commission, a house for Dwight Herrick, an Amherst classmate from Mead’s hometown of Chesterfield, New Hampshire. In 1877, the firm expanded when William Bigelow, McKim's future brother-in-law, joined as a partner, forming McKim, Mead, and Bigelow with offices at 57 Broadway. Bigelow withdrew from the partnership in 1879, and Stanford White joined to establish McKim, Mead, and White as it is known today.

Within the firm, Mead primarily managed operations, "hiring and firing" and overseeing project management, while McKim and White focused on design. After his marriage in 1883, Mead moved to Rome, Italy, where he played a significant role in the American Academy in Rome. He was a charter member, served as a trustee from 1905 to 1928, and was president from 1910 until his death in 1928.

In 1902, King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy appointed Mead as Knight Commander of the Crown of Italy, recognizing his contributions to architectural styles inspired by the Roman and Italian Renaissance. That same year, Amherst College awarded him an honorary LL.D. degree. Mead also received an M.S. degree from Norwich University in 1909, and in 1912, he obtained the gold medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, of which he was an early member. In 1922, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy.

Mead married Olga Kilyeni in 1883 in Budapest, Hungary. He retired from professional practice in 1920. William Rutherford Mead died on June 19, 1928, in a hotel room in Paris from a heart attack after several weeks of illness, with his wife at his side. His estate, valued at $250,000, was inherited by Olga. She later moved to New York City, where she died on April 10, 1936, in her apartment at the Sherry-Netherland Hotel. Olga left her entire estate to the trustees of Amherst College, supporting the construction of the Mead Art Building, completed in 1949, which houses the Mead Art Museum.