Thomas P. McCracken was born in Butler, but went on to become an architect in Baltimore, Md., renowned for overseeing the restoration of the city’s Washington Monument and the replacement of the roof at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Virginia.

He died from health issues May 6 at the age of 75.

Rosanne Natili, a classmate of McCracken’s from Center Township Elementary School through the 1967 graduating class of Butler High School, said he was a likable young man.

“It amazes me. Someone we went to school with did great things, but no one knows about it until he dies,” Natili said. “It’s nice to recognize successful people from Butler.”

In his school years in Butler, McCracken was a “very nice man, always a gentleman,” Natili said.

“He was always one of those people who when you ran into him, he never changed. He was always very nice and well liked,” she said.

Natili said McCracken’s obituary in the Baltimore Sun is filled with praise from people he worked with over the years.

He earned his architecture degree from the University of Cincinnati, spent summers building barn silos and worked as an Ohio River boat deckhand, according to the obituary.

In addition to his work at the monument and Monticello, McCracken is credited with guiding the restoration of the Basilica of the Assumption, also known as the Baltimore Basilica.

While working for RTKL Associates in Baltimore, McCracken became director of design and construction for the Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus in North Baltimore.

“Homewood, at the time had 52 buildings for me to worry about,” he said in a 2022 interview with the Alonsoville Voice, a North Baltimore neighborhood publication.

He oversaw construction of the Space Telescope Institute and Olin Hall. He made a dozen trips to China for a building constructed by Johns Hopkins, according to the obituary.

Steve Ziger, a friend of McCracken and co-worker at RTKL, said, “Tom practiced every aspect of the complex art of architecture and construction, especially with historic structures. He has left a lasting legacy visible throughout our city.”

In 1987, Henry H. Lewis Contractors hired Hopkins as project manager for the restoration of Evergreen House, which is part of Johns Hopkins’ Evergreen Museum and Library in Baltimore.

“For more than two decades, Tom was a cornerstone of Lewis Contractors. He helped shape who we are — with honesty (and) integrity … he approached each role with passion, creativity and a generous spirit. His good humor and steady presence made even the toughest days better,” the firm said in a statement to the Sun.

McCracken later opened McCracken Consulting LLC and worked with nonprofits on many projects in Baltimore. He was a volunteer in the preservation of the Thomas Point Shoal Lighthouse in Annapolis, Md., and worked in the structural and condition surveys of lighthouses on Alcatraz Island and Port Townsend, Wash.

McCracken also enjoyed sailing his 16-foot Hobie Catamaran in Delaware Bay, according to the obituary.

He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Anne Favrao, a writer and journalist; a daughter, Hollis McCracken, of Baltimore; and a sister, Jane Herlihy, of Durham, N.C. His son, Jake McCracken, died in 1989, according to the obituary.