Spero Daltas papers

Spero Paul Daltas was born March 13, 1920. He grew up in St. Paul in a Greek immigrant family that ran restaurants in the Twin Cities. Daltas graduated from Central High School, and received his degree in architecture from the University of Minnesota in 1943. He joined the Navy during World War II, and served as a gunnery and torpedo officer on the USS Nicholson. Following his service, Daltas won a scholarship to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for graduate work, which he completed in 1948. Daltas was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1949, which he combined with a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Rome. Following his scholarship in Rome, he apprenticed with Eero Saarinen.

In 1957, Daltas and Benjamin Brown established Brown Daltas Associates, headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts with a satellite office in Rome. Daltas settled in Rome, and took every opportunity to mentor University of Minnesota students working, studying, and living there. The commission list for Brown Daltas Associates is global in scope.

Throughout the years, Daltas maintained a Summit Avenue home in St. Paul. He died November 8, 2009 in St. Paul.