Samuel "Sambo" Mockbee dedicated his life, as a teacher and as an architect, to the goal of providing "shelter for the soul". His inspirational and authentic architecture served to improve the lives of the most impoverished residents of rural Alabama through his work at Auburn University's Rural Studio. Mockbee was so committed to this pure act of service that, in 1991, he abandoned a full time architectural practice with Coleman Coker and the firm Mockbee Coker Architects to accept a position at Auburn's School of Architecture. It was there that he and long time friend and Auburn professor D.K. Ruth conceived of and founded the Rural Studio concept.

A fifth-generation Mississippian, Mockbee was born on December 23, 1944 in Meridian. Because of his love for drawing, he knew by the time of his ninth birthday that he wanted to become an architect. However, upon graduating from high school and before beginning the formal study of architecture, Sambo served two years in the U.S. Army as an artillery officer at Fort Benning, Georgia. At the conclusion of his armed service commitment, he enrolled at Auburn and graduated from the School of Architecture in 1974. After an initial internship in Columbus, Georgia, he returned to his native Mississippi in 1977 to form a partnership with classmate and friend Thomas Goodman. The firm quickly established a regional reputation for outstanding design through the utilization of local materials to create a work based upon derivations of vernacular imagery. Mockbee Goodman Architects won more than twenty-five state and regional design awards during their short affiliation. However, it was his partnership with Coleman Coker in 1983 that established Mockbee's reputation as one of the nation's premier regionalists, and as a strong and important new voice coming from the South. In 1990, Mockbee Coker Architects was selected by the Architectural League of New York to participate in their prestigious Emerging Voices Series.

In 1995 Princeton Architectural Press published Mockbee Coker:Thought and Process, a monograph recognition of their important, but unusual body of work. The book documented the manner in which Mockbee Coker challenged the preconceptions and definitions of the normative process of creating architecture. It was during this time that Mockbee began to bring into focus a personal understanding and recognition of the social, economic, and cultural inconsistencies that existed in the late Twentieth Century South. That collected knowledge, coupled with the existing cultural heritage of mystery and mysticism of the region, became a framing device which established both boundaries and opportunities for his work. It was this experience that led to Mockbee's early interest in working to improve the living and working conditions of the South's most impoverished citizens.

The Auburn University Rural Studio became the vehicle through which Sambo Mockbee would be able to realize his personal aspiration that architecture become for him, a work which was true to the heart. The Rural Studio was conceived as an opportunity to raise the spirits of the rural poor through the creation of homes and community facilities which aspired to the same set of architectural ideals and virtues as those buildings which have substantial budgets and prosperous clientele. Mockbee once said that "Everybody wants the same thing, rich or poor ... not only a warm, dry room, but a shelter for the soul". The Rural Studio epitomizes that aspiration. Working from this ideal, students enrolled in the Rural Studio are exposed to the concept of "context based learning" where they actually live in and become a part of the community in which they are working. It is through this process that they learn the critical skills of planning, design, and building in a socially responsible manner. More importantly, Mockbee's social ethic is imbued in the students by instilling professionalism, volunteerism, individual responsibility, and a commitment to community service.

In that context, Mockbee and the Rural Studio faculty have involved the students with materials investigations and technologies which have mitigated the effects of poverty upon rural living conditions. Mockbee presented architecture as a discipline which is rooted in community ... a principle that must be committed to environmental, social, political, and aesthetic issues. The Rural Studio is a demonstration to students that they can make a difference.

The work of the Rural Studio is well documented and it has won numerous accolades throughout the United States and worldwide. It has been featured prominently by both the popular and the professional media, including the 2001 Princeton University Press publication Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and An Architecture of Decency by Andrea Oppenheimer Dean. Television crews from ABC's Nightline, Oprah Winfrey, CNN, CBS, and PBS appear with regularity at the Rural Studio compound in tiny Newbern, Alabama. In 2000, Mockbee was the recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant". The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York invited the Rural Studio to exhibit in its 2002 Biennial which opened on March 7. The Biennial exhibits the best in American contemporary art and marks the first time the museum has extended invitations to architects.

In 2001, Mockbee was one of eight recipients of the 2001 Mississippi Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts. And, in 2000 he was one of five national architects honored for environmental, social, and aesthetic contributions by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum at a White House ceremony. In 1988 he was the first recipient of the National Building Museum's Apgar Award for Excellence. In addition to Auburn, Mockbee taught at Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, and the University of Virginia.

In September of 1998 Sambo was diagnosed with leukemia. The illness slowed him down, but he none the less remained committed to the aspirations and ideals of the Rural Studio. He and his students began experimenting with recycled goods, such as discarded cardboard and carpet tiles, as potential low cost building materials. On December 30, 2001 he died of complication from the disease. He is survived by his wife Jackie and four children, Margaret, Sarah Ann, Carol, and Julius. Despite his renown, Sambo Mockbee remained modest and resolutely "down-home" until his death. He was a charmer with a quick wit and a thick Southern drawl. Samuel Mockbee was a rare hybrid who was truly loved and admired by all who came in contact with him. He had an amazing design talent, but his uniqueness came from his compassion for people, especially those who were socially and economically disadvantaged. He cast a spotlight on an aspect of our culture that most avoid ... and he demonstrated that socially responsible architecture can delight the senses, inspire the masses, and serve the soul.