Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
William M. Peña ’42, an Outstanding Alumnus of Texas A&M’s College of Architecture, received the “Heart of Service” award from the Houston West Chamber of Commerce Nov. 13 during a luncheon at the Omni Houston Hotel at Westside honoring military veterans.
The chamber honored Peña for his military service, support and contribution to the community, his faith and his embodiment of the entrepreneurial spirit. He resides in the west Houston area.
Peña was attending Texas A&M when the United States entered World War II. He served as a second lieutenant in the Army, leading a platoon in the Battle of the Bulge. His left foot and part of his left ankle were blown off by a land mine in March 1944 as he was trying to reestablish his platoon’s communications during a battle.
After the war, he became a founding partner in Caudill, Rowlett and Scott in 1948, named by Texas A&M’s College of Architecture as the firm of the century in 2005 when the college kicked off its centennial celebration.
In 1969, drawing upon 20 years of experience, he wrote “Problem Seeking: An Architectural Programming Primer,” which remains a standard text for architecture students.
The chamber honored Peña and other veterans with a program that included entertainer Wayne Newton as keynote speaker and KPRC-TV news anchor Bill Balleza as emcee.
In August 1944 Peña crossed the Atlantic on the Queen Elizabeth to join Allied forces in Germany, seeing his first action August 19 in the battle of Hurtgen Forest, the longest single battle fought by the U.S. Army in its history, costing more than 23,000 American lives.
From there, Peña led his company in the Battle of the Bulge, Germany’s final major offensive of the war. Later, Peña was promoted to executive officer of his company, which liberated Colmar, the last French city to be liberated from German occupation.
On March 3, 1945, Peña’s platoon came under heavy artillery and mortar fire at a bridge in Schleiden, not far from the Belgian border. The fusillade knocked out the platoon’s radio and field telephone, and Peña volunteered to help reestablish communications.
Moving down a narrow road whose center had been declared free of land mines, Peña found a large limb, knocked down by artillery fire, lying across the road on top of a communication wire. While trying to free the wire, he stepped onto the road’s muddy shoulder and onto a land mine. The blast ripped his left foot and part of his left ankle off; just over two months later, Germany surrendered to Allied forces, making Peña his company’s last combat casualty. He retired from the Army in 1947 as a captain.
Peña is a world-renowned pioneer of architectural programming and has conducted workshops and lectures at more than 100 professional, corporate and academic sessions.
