Turpin C. Bannister was born in Lima, Ohio in 1904. Bannister received his bachelor's degree from Denison University in Granville, Ohio, in 1925 and a master's degree from Columbia University in 1928. By his early 20s, Bannister had become highly involved in the national music fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He was so involved that by 1926 he had served on a national committee to revise the fraternity's Initiation Ritual. The committee was composed of Peter W. Dykema, Charles E. Lutton, Rollin Pease, and Bannister. Their revisions to the Ritual paid tribute to the founder, Ossian Everett Mills who had died in 1920. From 1932 to 1944 he taught at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, first as a design instructor and later as an architectural historian. During this time period he was hired by the Federal Writers Project of the Works Project Administration to assist in the preparation of the Federal Guide Series book on New York State. From December 1938 to August 1939, and in February 1940, he was employed as an editor and writer. the guide's introductory essay on architecture was written by Bannister. Bannister was one of the original five or six young scholars who talked informally but earnestly during the 1938 Harvard Summer Session about the formation of a professional organization of architectural historians. The first organized meeting of The American Society of Architectural Historians finally occurred on July 31, 1940 when twenty five charter members elected Bannister the first President, and directed him to edit a Journal. The Society would abridge its name a decade later to The Society of Architectural Historians. The Journal that Bannister published would go on to be known as The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. After his initial involvement, Bannister continued to widely contribute to the Journal throughout his career. Bannister completed his studies at Harvard's School of Architecture where he received his Ph.D. in 1944. That year he left Rensselaer and became dean of the Alabama Polytechnic Institute's School of Architecture and Arts in Auburn. In 1948, he moved to the University of Illinois at Urbana and was Professor of Architecture for ten years, seven of which he served as head of the Department of Architecture. In 1958 he came to the University of Florida and served as dean until 1965 when he suffered a stroke. He died March 15, 1982 in Williston, Florida.
