George Milton Small was born in Collinsville, OK. He graduated with two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Oklahoma, one in architecture and one in engineering. He later studied under Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology. In Chicago, he worked for Perkins/Will and Hudgins Thompson Ball.
Henry Kamphoefner, Small’s former professor at Oklahoma, advised George Milton Small to move to North Carolina in 1948 to assume the role of Chief Designer at William Deitrick’s architectural firm. Deitrick’s firm, the foremost advocate of Modernist design in Raleigh at the time, provided an ideal platform for Small’s talents. He primarily built the modern layout for the Carolina Country Club in 1947, marking it as the inaugural Modernist U.S. Club within the nation.
Subsequently, in 1949, Small embarked on his unbiased architectural adventure after departing from Deitrick’s organization. During the Fifties, he partnered with fellow Oklahoman Joseph Boaz, further enriching his architectural endeavors.