W. Brown Morton, UMW professor emeritus, has been appointed to the newly formed Loudon Heritage Commission, a body formed to address matters of natural and cultural heritage in Loudon.
Morton has amassed a record of professional responsibilities, publications, lectures, honors, grants and awards. Before coming to Mary Washington in 1985, he worked for the U.S. Department of the Interior for 12 years, during which time he was principal architect of the Historic American Buildings Survey and Chief, Technical Preservation Services Division of the National Park Service. He is the co-author of The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Preservation Projects, including the Standards for Rehabilitation used by the Fredericksburg Architectural Review Board. He also oversaw the UNESCO efforts to save Hue, Vietnam, which was damaged during the Vietnam War, and he served on the Consultative Committee for the Safeguarding of Borobudur, Indonesia, home of the largest Buddhist monument in the world. An expert in historic architecture, architectural conservation and international preservation, Morton has undertaken preservation work in Jordan, Egypt, Italy, Vietnam, Nepal, Indonesia and throughout the United States, including in his hometown of Waterford, Va. His articles have been published in National Geographic magazine.
In 1995, Morton was named the Prince B. Woodard Chair of Historic Preservation by the Mary Washington Board of Visitors. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia, and he completed his graduate work in architectural conservation with the Ministère des Affairs Culturelles. He retired from UMW in May 2008.