Roy Allen Worden

Jan 3, 1907 - Mar 19, 1964

Roy Allen Worden, 57, South Bend architect and engineer and longtime member of the City Planning Commission, was dead on arrival at 10:15 p.m. Thursday at St. Joseph's Hospital after suffering a heart attack in his home at 1304 E. Jefferson Blvd.

Although Mr. Worden had suffered a heart attack last August he had recovered to continue his interest in the citys' zoning and public property improvement laws, accepting another term last January on the City Planning Commission. Appointed to the post by Mayor Lloyd M. Allen, he had served that organization under former Mayors F. Kenneth. Dempsey, John A. Scott and Edward F. Voorde. A president of the commission for five years, he and other members of the group established a new zoning code for the city in 1949, modernizing the city's 25-year-old code. Members of Zone Board Before his appointment to the commission he was a member of the Board of Zoning Appeals. He had served three terms on the Indiana State Architect's Registration Board.

He was first appointed by former Gov. Henry F. Schricker. As head of the Roy A. Worden & Associates architectural firm at 222 S. William St., he designed and supervised the million dollar South Bend-Mishawaka Campus of Indiana University. His firm won first prize in 1949 from the Indiana Society of Architects for the commercial structural design of the terminal building at the St. Joseph County Airport. He designed his own contemporary home on Jefferson Blvd., in addition to more than 2,000 area homes. The Worden firm also designed sevlocal schools.

A graduate of the University of Notre Dame, he had taught architecture there for the last three years. A lifelong resident of South Bend, Mr. Worden was born on Jan. 3, 1907, in LaPorte.

On May 5, 1956, in South Bend, he married the former Mrs. Ethel Martin, who survives. Also surviving are three sons, Rolfe A. Worden of Minneapolis, and James H. and David B. Martin, both students at Purdue University; two daughters, Carol Ruth Worden, at home, and Mrs. Robert Allbritten of Oakbrook, Ill.; a grandchild and two sisters, Mrs. Lyle Jenkins of Cleveland, Ohio and Mrs. John Connell of Denver, Colo.

Mr. Worden was a member the First Presbyterian Church, the Izaak Walton League, St. Joseph County Building Review Board, the Indiana and Michigan Societies of Architects and the American Institute of Architects.

Friends may call after 7 p.m. today and until noon Saturday at the Welsheimer Funeral Home, then at the First Presbyterian Church, where services will be conducted at 2pm. Rev. Daniel W. Fowler, pastor of the church, will officiate and interment will be in Highland Cemetery.

Article from 20 Mar 1964 The South Bend Tribune (South Bend, IN)

Sources: Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com and FindAGrave.com

03/18/2026 EJS

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/103772820/roy-allan-worden