Bainbridge Island’s Jim Cutler was named a 2015 National Academician at the induction ceremony on Oct. 27. Here are some things you may not know about the island’s standout architect.

He grew up in “a really dirt poor Appalachian coal town” in Pennsylvania. “Basically there were two things you could do if you were a kid: You could play football — and I was not physically endowed enough to play football against a bunch of coal miners’ kids — or you worked on cars, which is what I did.”

He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. “I’d gone to become an anthropologist, but I ended up an architect,” he said.

He came to the island after too many run-ins with MOVE, the radical black liberation group founded by John Africa. Cutler lived on their street “and they did not like me being there.” They threatened him and his wife, burned his cat and his motorcycle and “killed a couple of people on the streets.” So when Cutler’s wife got into University of Washington’s school of architecture, they fled and ended up at Faye Bainbridge State Park “because it was the closest campground to Seattle.”

He has designed 300-plus residential, commercial and cultural projects around the world. The Salem Witch Tercentenary Memorial, which Cutler designed with Maggie Smith, is his favorite. “It’s an impressionist piece that people can emotionally engage in without having to rationalize it,” Cutler explained.

He’s currently listening to “Girl on the Train” by Paula Hawkins. Before that, it was the “The Wright Brothers” by David McCullough. “I’m one of the few people in the world that likes airplanes,” Cutler said. His usual routine? He fires up his Bose headset and tunes into Audible — his girls just bought him a subscription. “I love it; I’ve got total concentration. I listen to a good book and I just draw like crazy.”