Pioneer Information
Born in Ohio, Wigginton received bachelors’ degrees from Marietta College and The Ohio State University and an M.L.A. from Cornell University. He lived in and completed projects in several states throughout his career. Major designs in West Virginia include Wheeling Park, a master plan for the Alpine Lake Resort with Milford Hardesty, and a 40-year association with Oglebay Park, where he was responsible for the design of a golf course, gardens, trails, lake, zoo, and arboretum. He taught at the University of Georgia from 1945 to 1958 and, with his students, designed the Memorial Foundation Gardens in Athens, Georgia. He also designed the Southeastern Center of Contemporary Art campus in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Wigginton published several books and articles, including Trees and Shrubs for the Southern Piedmont, Japanese Gardens and Trees and Shrubs for the Southeast. He collaborated with Michael Rapuano and P.P. Pirone on the "Open Space in Urban Design" report for the Cleveland Development Foundation, in Ohio. He was made a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1958. He was the winner of the Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture in 1950 and received an honorary Doctorate of Arts from Marietta College in 1959. The Brooks E. Wigginton Scholarship Fund at the University of Georgia was established in his honor in 2001.
