Canadian Architect Geoffrey Cornish: 1914 - 2012

Mr. Cornish, a protégée of the great Stanley Thompson, was born in Winnipeg, was a mentor to many including Toronto's Bill Robinson, (Cornish & Robinson) and continued to serve until his death with Mungeam Cornish Golf Design.

The American Society of Golf Course Architects today provided the following obituary.

Mr. Cornish, an ASGCA Past President and native of Winnipeg, designed more golf courses in New England than anyone. He and his associates designed 240 golf courses in the United States, Canada and Europe, including: the International Golf Club, Bolton, Mass.; the Center Valley Club, Center Valley, Pa.; and the New Ashburn Golf Club, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He continued to serve until his death with Mungeam Cornish Golf Design.

He wrote many books and co-authored the landmark reference book, which allowed readers, for the first time, to obtain specific information about the architectural history of their favorite golf courses while learning more about the people who designed them. For years, Cornish presented to groups around the world on the history and practice of golf course architecture.

He received his bachelor's degree in agronomy from the University of British Columbia and his Master's and honorary doctorate from the University of Massachusetts. Cornish was introduced to golf course architecture in 1935 when evaluating soils for Capilano Golf Club, then under construction by Stanley Thompson in West Vancouver. Cornish soon joined Thompson for training and four years later became greenskeeper at St. Charles Country Club in Winnipeg.

Cornish served overseas with the Canadian Army during World War II, but rejoined Thompson in 1946. He left for a five-year association with pioneer turfgrass scientist Lawrence Dickinson at the University of Massachusetts before opening his own practice in 1952 in Amherst, Mass.

Cornish joined the American Society of Golf Course Architects in 1967. He served as ASGCA president in 1975-76 and co-chaired the ASGCA History Committee with Dr. Michael Hurdzan, ASGCA.

Cornish was a past recipient of the ASGCA Donald Ross Award and the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America Distinguished Service Award. He is a member of the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame.

Cornish was predeceased by his wife Carol. No formal funeral services are planned.

Reactions

ASGCA President Rick Phelps:
"Mr. Cornish was a true gentleman and exemplified the highest traditions of ASGCA and the game of golf. His exceptional work as a golf course architect, author and lecturer cannot be overstated. Mr. Cornish's contributions to the profession of golf course architecture and the golf industry will live on for generations."

Mark Mungeam, ASGCA (partner in the firm of Mungeam Cornish Golf Design):
"I was honored to work with Mr. Cornish. He was a true gentleman and wealth of knowledge on golf design and golf in general. He brought so much to public golf as he wanted to create courses that people could really play. Golf, especially in New England, would not be the same without him. Everyone who ever worked with Mr. Cornish knew how he would walk and study a golf course. He would show up for an 8 a.m. meeting at 6 a.m. and walk the golf course, carefully assessing the layout before the meeting even began."

Dr. Michael Hurdzan, ASGCA (co-chairman with Geoffrey Cornish of the ASGCA History Committee):
"Geoffrey Cornish, Bob Graves and Jack Kidwell were as close to saintly men as possible, so for ASGCA to have them as members and past presidents was a blessing. They never spoke ill of anyone or anything, they were true friends to whomever they met, and they gave the game of golf and the profession of golf course design a refined dignity. Geoffrey Cornish was the "Dean" of that group, and he leaves behind a long legacy of great golf courses and golf course designers that he mentored. Geoff was a special man by every and any measure, and every day spent with him was a treasured memory. He will be missed."

Canadian Golf Hall of Fame biography

The following item by Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member and award winning journalist Lorne Rubinstein appeared in the Globe and Mail on August 5, 2004 on the occasion of Mr. Cornish's 90th birthday in 2004.

One of golf's most respected course architects will turn 90 tomorrow, and the distressing truth is that so few people are aware of his contributions.

This remarkable gentleman, Geoffrey Cornish, was born in Winnipeg, studied at the University of British Columbia and the University of Massachusetts, worked with the famous architect Stanley Thompson on some of Canada's classic courses and is just about the most decent person anybody could hope to meet.



"I don't know how you could meet a finer person," Brian Silva, Cornish's associate in a course design firm with offices in Whitinsville, Mass., and Uxbridge, Mass., said yesterday while on his way to the airport in Pittsburgh and then home. "Nobody has worked more selflessly for the game."



Cornish lives in Amherst, Mass., and maintains an active role with Silva and Mark Mungeam, gentlemen and course architecture scholars in their own right.
 
The firm of Cornish, Silva & Mungeam is busy in New England and elsewhere.

 That's why Silva was in the hills of western Pennsylvania yesterday.

 Cornish, meanwhile, was having a typical day. He walked. And he walked.

 Cornish often walks kilometres with a half-dozen dogs or so that he picks up near his home. His nephew Brian, a real-estate lawyer in Montreal, said yesterday that his uncle walks up to 25 kilometres a day with the dogs.



"I'm in great shape," Cornish said from his home. "I ran a mile every day from the time I got out of the [Canadian] army in 1945 until recently. But I still get out and walk at home or when I'm out at courses. I think that constant walking is the answer for a long life."



Constant enthusiasm for one's work, and an interest in the world around and other people, can't hurt either. Cornish is always more interested in asking about somebody else than answering questions about himself.

"He'll have met you and talked to you for 30 seconds, but he won't let you interview him because he wants to know about you," Silva said. "Then you'll get a four-page letter from him two days later."



If Cornish did talk more about himself, he'd be more widely known. He's accomplished so much. Cornish has taught at the University of Massachusetts and at Harvard. He crafted an elegant foreword to Jim Barclay's biography about Thompson, called The Toronto Terror. And he co-wrote The Architects of Golf with Golf Digest's architecture editor, Ron Whitten. This standard reference is full of information and insightful essays.



"I remember talking to the publisher about the first edition of the book," Cornish recalled. "He thought it would have the interest of a telephone book."

"I still refer to it as the book," Silva said. "I don't think the plethora of architecture books since then would have come out had it not been done. And you know, Mr. Cornish isn't one of those architects who's asked for seven-figure fees, there's no self-promoting ego, no saying that he spent $30-million on a course. The result is that so many of his contributions are unknown."



One can go back to 1935 at the beautiful Thompson-designed Capilano course in West Vancouver, where Cornish evaluated soils after graduating in agronomy from UBC. Cornish was the greenkeeper at St. Charles in Winnipeg.

 Cornish also worked on Thompson's Highlands Links in Cape Breton in Nova Scotia with Robbie Robinson, who later became a well-known architect. Robinson was the construction superintendent when the Highlands Links was built in the late 1930s.

Robinson went on to supervise the building of the Anne of Green Gables course in Prince Edward Island after a year at the Highlands, so Cornish took over the lead role. He eventually turned to full-time design work in 1952 after serving in the army and working for Thompson and Lawrence Dickinson, a maverick turf-grass scientist at the University of Massachusetts.



Cornish was inducted into the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 1996. By then, he'd worked with Toronto-born architect William Robinson on many courses, including York Downs in Unionville, Ont. Legendary Canadian amateur Marlene Streit is a member at York Downs. To chat with Cornish is to appreciate him not only as an architect and educator, but also as a golf historian. He is a significant part of golf history.



"I don't know how I'd have come to appreciate the history of the game without him," Silva said. "I don't like to use the term for a man of his advanced age, but he's a dying breed. He's a unique man."

He is that. Cornish has been a vital part of the game for 70 years. At 90, his vitality remains, and people who know golf might celebrate his vital contributions and offer a toast to him on his birthday.
 


ASGCA Background
Founded in 1946 by 14 leading architects, the American Society of Golf Course Architects is a non-profit organization comprised of experienced golf course designers located throughout the United States and Canada. Members have completed a rigorous two-year long application process that includes the peer review of four representative golf courses. ASGCA members are experienced golf course architects, able to counsel in all aspects of golf course design and remodeling.