Services were recently held for Drucie Rucker Chase, a well-known community volunteer and the wife of the late architectural pioneer John S. Chase. She died Jan. 19 at age 89.
Mrs. Chase served on the boards of the Municipal Arts Commission, Institute for International Education, Houston Botanic Garden, Emancipation Park Conservancy and Houston Museum of African American Culture.
She was a former president of the Houston Chapter of the Links and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Jack & Jill and The Moles. She was a devoted member of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church for almost 70 years.
She often hosted fundraisers, political receptions and social events at her Third Ward home, which was designed by her husband of 62 years. John S. Chase was the first African American licensed to practice architecture in the state of Texas, as well as the first African American admitted to the Texas Society of Architects and Houston Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
His firm designed such structures as the George R. Brown Convention Center, Thurgood Marshall School of Law, national headquarters of both The Links and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority and the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, Tunisia.
Drucie Chase was born in Austin and graduated from what is now Huston-Tillotson University with a B.A. in English at age 19. She taught elementary school in Austin and at Grimes and Dodson elementary schools in Houston.
After retiring from teaching she was dedicated to rearing her three children and assisting her husband in growing his architectural firm.
Survivors include her son Tony Chase and his wife Dina al Sowayel, daughter Saundria Chase Gray and her husband Jerome Gray, daughter-in-law Brenda Peters Chase, a sister and five grandchildren.
In lieu of customary remembrances, memorial contributions may be made to the UNCF John and Drucie Chase Young Builders Award at www.uncf.org/donatehouston or mailed toUNCF, 945 McKinney St., Suite 581, Houston, Texas, 77002.