Design Profession: Architect
Building Types: Civic, Educational, Other, Residential, Social
George W. Sprau was a Kalamazoo architect who practiced with the firm Stapert, Pratt, Bulthuis & Sprau. He was born in 1915 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and later moved to Michigan with his family. Sprau’s father, also George Sprau, was a well-known professor of literature at Western Michigan University for whom the Sprau Tower there was named. After service in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Sprau obtained a degree from the University of Michigan’s College of Architecture, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. Over the course of a long career in architecture, Sprau designed many houses and public buildings, mostly in the Kalamazoo area. Among other civic activities, Sprau served as president of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo. Sprau passed away in 2012 at age ninety-six.