Ferdinand P. Kelly, a retired Baltimore architect who was known for the churches, banks and schools he designed during a three-decade career, died of heart disease May 1 at Morningside House of Ellicott City. He was 90.
Mr. Kelly, the son of a Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. foreman and a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised on Preston Street.
After graduating from Polytechnic Institute in 1936, he enlisted in the Army and served in a cavalry unit at Fort Riley, Kan.
With the outbreak of World War II, he attended officers candidate school in ordnance at Aberdeen Proving Ground and was commissioned.
Mr. Kelly was deployed to the Pacific, where he served for 30 months in the Philippines, New Caledonia and Guadalcanal. He was discharged with the rank of captain, and his decorations included a Bronze Star.
After returning to Baltimore, Mr. Kelly worked for several architectural and engineering firms while studying architecture at night at Johns Hopkins' McCoy College and the Maryland Institute College of Art.
"His interest in engineering and architecture went back to when he was a kid and he'd go out on jobs with his father, who was the BGE foreman of electrical construction," said a son, Mark P. Kelly of Lutherville.
"He did not have a college degree, and in 1953 passed the exam for his architect's license. He was always proud of being a self-made man," his son said.
The next year, Mr. Kelly founded Ferdinand P. Kelly & Associates on North Calvert Street, which later became Kelly, Clayton and Mojzisek, and finally KCM.
"Among his architectural innovations was St. Philip Neri Roman Catholic Church in Linthicum, the first church in the area with a nontraditional octagonal layout designed to bring all in the congregation closer to the focal point of worship," his son said.
When the roof of St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Brooklyn collapsed after a heavy snow in 1967, Mr. Kelly was brought in to design a new church.
"He rebuilt it on the old foundation and won an American Institute of Architects Award," said another son, Brian W. Kelly of Roland Park, an architect who worked alongside his father.
"He did the Enoch Pratt Library at Pennsylvania and North avenues, and a Colonial-style library in Edmondson Village," said Brian W. Kelly.
"He loved his work, and he thrived on what he did," he said.
The elder Mr. Kelly retired in 1983.
"He strove to make his firm a leader in the search for an improved quality of life in Baltimore," said Mark P. Kelly.
The longtime Catonsville resident was proud of his Irish heritage and was an active member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians.
He was a longtime communicant of St. Mark Roman Catholic Church in Catonsville, where he had been president of the parish council. A Mass of Christian burial was offered Thursday at his church.
Also surviving are his wife of 61 years, the former Lucille Bartell; two other sons, Gary M. Kelly of New York City and Kevin H. Kelly of Alna, Maine; a daughter, Julie A. Kelly of Catonsville; a sister, Annabelle Derr of Overlea; and five grandchildren.
