deeply involved with the planning of the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago and in the 1939 New York World's Fair. Walker was an active member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and became its president in 1949. During his two-year presidency he was instrumental in establishing the AIA's College of Fellows which gained approval in 1952. In 1957, on the occasion of the AIA's 100th anniversary, the AIA recognized Walker's extraordinary service to the profession by creating a special award for him, the AIA Centennial Medal of Honor (Gold Medal). The headline of The New York Times reporting the award dubbed Walker the "Architect of the Century." To commemorate the event, Walker also wrote and published an autobiography. Walker retired from Voorhees, Walker, Foley, Smith & Smith in 1959 but remained active within the profession. Prior to his death, however, he destroyed his AIA award. Walker killed himself in January 1973, using a silver bullet that he had forged himself. The Ralph T. Walker Papers, his Nachlass are preserved at the Special Collections Research Center of the Syracuse University Libraries. They contain correspondence, articles, manuscript essays, speeches, notes and notebooks as well as photographs, project files, sketches, clippings, and scrapbooks. Controversy In 1960, Walker resigned from the AIA after a conflict over professional ethics. The AIA accused a member of Walker's firm of acting in an "unprofessional manner" by taking a contract that already belonged to another firm. Walker was devastated by the controversy and self-published a booklet defending his reputation—and including much of the correspondence surrounding the incident – which he sent to all members of the College of Fellows. He ended the essay with: May I say, finally, that I have no illusions of grandeur; quite to the contrary, I am very humble in my knowledge that through forty years of my life my life has been an open book of service to my fellow architects and for the public good. When I sever my connections with the A.I.A. I do so with my own self respect, as a matter of pride and I am sure within your knowledge of my character. I completely scorn the falsifying, the sanctimonious, the cheap and the shoddy. Walker was reinstated to the AIA in 1965. Other organizations Walker belonged to several other organizations. He was appointed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts,