MINNEAPOLIS, MN.-Ralph Rapson (September 13, 1914, Alma, Michigan March 29, 2008, Minneapolis, Minnesota) was one of the world's oldest practicing architects at his death at age 93, and also one of the most prolific. His work is predominantly in the Modernist style, but Rapson also held a deep appreciation for vernacular and traditional building types.

Rapson was educated at the University of Michigan and Cranbrook Academy of Art under Eliel Saarinen. Rapson led the architecture department of the New Bauhaus School in Chicago, and practiced in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Stockholm, and Paris before becoming head of the architecture school at the University of Minnesota in 1954.

His son, architect Toby Rapson, said his father had a heart attack after going to bed at home. Ralph had been in the office the previous day, working on design projects and writing. "He always joked that he would be carried out on his drafting board," said Toby.

Rapson led the University of Minnesota School of Architecture from 1954 to 1984. Current Dean Tom Fisher remembered Rapson as the "last of the second generation of Modernists in America still practicing."

In addition to the old Guthrie Theater, Rapson designed the U.S. embassies in Stockholm, Sweden, and Copenhagen, Denmark. In the 1940s, he developed his own line of furniture for Knoll and participated in the highly influential Case Study Houses Program. More recently, his firm developed a line of prefabricated modern houses called the Rapson Greenbelt.

As of 2007, Rapson's office continues to work on a variety of projects. In recent years his firm has developed a line of prefabricated modern houses called the Rapson Greenbelt, which grew out of a submission for the Dwell Home Design Invitational and are now available through a company called Wieler (http://wieler.com/homes/rapson-greenbelt/overview/). The Rapson Greenbelt is based on the design that Rapson created for the Case Study Houses Program.

Rapson died quietly in his home in Minneapolis. He was working in his office the previous day.