Tue, 04/27/2021 LAWRENCE — Charles H. Kahn, the first dean of the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Urban Design (now School of Architecture & Design), died at the age of 95 on April 8, 2021, at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Kahn served as dean from 1968 until 1981 and continued as a professor until 1991. Beyond his relevance as the first dean of the school, Kahn was a civil rights activist and educational innovator whose socially engaged approach made KU a unique institution during his tenure and continues to guide the teaching of architecture and design at the university today. Kent Spreckelmeyer, KU professor of architecture, was a freshman at KU upon Kahn’s arrival in 1968. “(Kahn) was the person I have always associated with what it was ‘to be an architect,’” Spreckelmeyer said. “His insistence that design was about social equity and justice as much as form and function. And the optimism and confidence that he brought to Lawrence to build a new school from the ground up. We owe him a debt that can never be fully repaid.”