Dale Booher, 85, Architect and Designer

Dale Booher, an architect and garden designer who was among the founders of the Hayground School in Bridgehampton, died on Sept. 15 at home on Shelter Island. The cause was Lewy body disease, a form of dementia, his wife, Lisa Stamm, said.

Mr. Booher worked with the architect I.M. Pei for seven years and with Philip Cortelyou Johnson for a year before joining Harry Bates to found Bates and Booher Architects, which set up an office in Water Mill and designed many East Hampton houses. He helped the Hayground School as a designer and created a grove there in memory of Jeff Saloway, a founder. He lived in East Hampton from 1970 to ’78.

He was born on Aug. 10, 1931, in Wichita Falls, Tex., where his father, William Finice Booher, the assistant chief of police, once chased the infamous Depression-era criminals Bonnie and Clyde. His mother was the former Jewel Bates.

After graduating from high school in Wichita Falls, Mr. Booher attended the United States Navy’s officer candidate school, and  served as a bombardier navigator during the Panama crisis. Leaving the service, he settled in New York City, where he earned a master’s degree in architecture from Columbia University.

He and Ms. Stamm were married in 1980 and in 1991 formed the Homestead Garden and Design Collaborative. Mr. Booher focused on the landscape and structures of the gardens they designed across the South Fork, including one for the well-known interior designer Charlotte Moss in East Hampton.

The family said Mr. Booher was inspired by frequent trips abroad. He would sketch ideas on visits to Mexico, Italy, England, and the Andes mountains in South America, among other places. Upon his return, the sketches inspired such things as a table based on a handmade wall in the Mexican countryside and a Thai-influenced hut overlooking a pond on his Shelter Island property. He continued drawing until his diagnosis this year with the degenerative illness that took his life.

Mr. Booher and Ms. Stamm and their daughter, Vanessa, first lived in an 18th- century house on Shelter Island, where they created a series of garden rooms connected by grass paths, which Mr. Booher mowed himself. In 2003, the family moved to another house on Shelter Island. There, Mr. Booher was often surrounded by his daughter’s friends and his three grandchildren. He enjoyed sitting with his wife on their porch, keeping track of ospreys and watching sailboats in Peconic Bay.

A daughter from Mr. Booher’s first marriage, which ended in divorce, died before him. In addition to Ms. Stamm, his daughter, and his grandchildren, a brother, Jim Booher of Waxahatchie, Tex., survives.

A memorial gathering was held on Saturday at Mr. Booher and Ms. Stamm’s house. His family has suggested memorial contributions to the Perlman Music Program, 19 West 69th Street, Suite 1101, New York 10023 or perlmanmusicprogram.org.