Pioneer Information
Born in Savedge, Virginia, Fountain studied at Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) for a year before enlisting in the U.S. Army as a Commissioned officer in 1941. Discharged in 1945, he returned to Hampton Institute where he earned a B.S. in agriculture in 1947. The following year, Fountain received an M.S. in horticulture from Michigan State University. From 1949 to 1957 he returned to the Hampton Institute as a horticulture instructor and supervisor of landscape development. Earning a PhD in horticulture from Michigan State University in 1957 he relocated to Greensboro as a tenured professor of plant science at North Carolina A&T State University (N.C. A&T). Upon earning an M.L.A in 1965 from University of California, Berkeley, he returned to his tenured position at N.C. A&T, where he spearheaded the development of the institution’s landscape architecture department.
Established in 1976, the department is distinguished as the first accredited landscape architecture degree offered by an HBCU (Historically Black College and University). Dr. Fountain served as the director of the program and its primary instructor, often relying on personal funds to support visiting lectures, critics, and student enrichment. He recruited and mentored several generations of students and advocated for diversity through national, state, and local engagement. He retired in 1989, becoming a professor emeritus.
Throughout his career Dr. Fountain served on numerous North Carolina task forces. Beginning in 1969 he was habitually appointed to the North Carolina Board of Landscape Architects and in 1988 was appointed to a committee to guide the Greensboro Center City Development Plan.
Dr. Fountain died at his Greensboro residence and is buried at Pierce Family Cemetery in Savedge. In 2021, the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) created an endowed annual award in his honor.
