Mike C. Wilkins' Obituary
Mike was born on May 15, 1945, in Dallas, and passed away peacefully on August 6, 2023 after a long struggle with cancer. He was pre-deceased by parents Grover Wilkins Jr. and Marguerite Clark Wilkins, and his life partner Tom P. Briggs: and survived by brother Grover Wilkins III, sister Kitti Ann Leroux and her husband Phil LeRoux; and nephews Aaron, Christopher LeRoux, wife Annie and great nephew Bennett; and Michael LeRoux and Bailey his wife.
He was a consummate artist whose life’s work was in Luxury Store Design. His ability to conceive designs that were aesthetically beautiful and refined and, importantly, valid from a business perspective was unique; many designers cannot serve both parameters effectively. The details behind how he imagined a store went far above what most clients could imagine, but he knew that these details were essential in making a luxury store a compelling place to work, visit, and shop.
Mike loved fast cars, fine food, fashionable clothes, playing the piano (at a professional level) and drawing cars that would be seen decades after on the road. His wickedly deadpanned wit, inherited from his mother, was well known by his loyal friends of which he had many to whom he was loyal, hilarious and so delightfully ironic.
He was educated in Dallas Public Schools: Lakewood Elementary, J L Long Jr High and Woodrow Wilson HS. He entered the University of Arkansas in 1963 to study architecture. But his inherited musical skills and the influence of piano faculty member Alfred Mouledous drew him in 1965 to the Academies des Beaux Arts at Fontainebleau France where he was a student of the celebrated Nadia Boulanger, in a milieu which sought to educate the most talented students from around the world in drawing, painting, sculpture, engraving and architecture, just the first of many international influences in his cosmopolitan life.
Only one semester from college graduation Mike responded to a call from Dallas to begin working with the nascent firm of Robert Young where in 1976 he became the Creative Director and for 33 years was the driving force behind world class design in the retail industry. Renamed RYA the company became one of the most awarded and recognized retail consultancies in the world, setting the stage for its acquisition in 2009 by Callison/RTKL, where Mike served as a Principal until his retirement in 2020.
His creative leadership propelled RYA to becoming an internationally sought-after creative agency, but more importantly into a family of professionals trusted by great retailers around the globe including Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s. In addition to having had the good fortune to design flagship stores for major retailers in many of the world's great cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Sydney, Kuala Lumpur, Seoul, Toronto, and Dubai among them Mike saw and studied the cultures that give these places their allure and in the process of building the relationships that formed during the making of these stores, gained friendships that continue to reap rewards.
While not obvious, the influence of family and Dallas urbanity worked wonders on his coming career. The beautiful mother whose style derived from her work in downtown Dallas as a young woman led, as he often said, to his early shopping in the original suburban Neiman Marcus store on Preston Road—and to the fish pond in the Live Oak Avenue Volks emporium. Thus he grew up knowing Neiman’s by shopping in their stores and later, as a consultant to Neiman’s in his professional life, to drawing upon his experiences as a child and a young adult to form some of his ideas for their new stores. “The idea of getting to know a brand and its history and communicating that to the customer is the basis for success.”
Those who loved Mike so much will miss him terribly. The stores that he designed will bear witness to his talent and persistence. The impact of his designs will continue to influence Luxury Store design far into the future.
A Memorial Service will be held Thursday August 17, 2023 at 2PM at Restland Memorial Chapel ––followed by a Reception at Park Towers.
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