Abel Joseph "Jack" Diamond was born in Piet Retief, South Africa, November 8th 1932. He received his Bachelor of Architecture, with distinction, at the University of Capetown in 1956, where he was awarded the Thornton White Prize for design, an Italian State Bursary and the Marley Scholarship. Diamond holds a Master's degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University, completed in 1958. In 1962, with the help of a Graham Foundation Scholarship, he completed a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania where he studied with Louis Kahn. In 1964, Diamond immigrated to Canada to become the founding director of the Master of Architecture program at the University of Toronto, a position he held until 1970. He has held full professor rank at York University and the University of Texas, and has taught as a visiting scholar at Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, and University of California Berkeley. Diamond was made a fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada in 1980, was named an Honourary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1994, was made an officer of the Order of Canada in 1995, and received a RAIC gold medal in 2001. Jack Diamond established his practice as A.J Diamond Architect in 1965. In 1969 Barton Myers joined the firm and the two practiced together as Diamond and Myers until 1975. A.J Diamond and Associates was formed when Diamond established his own firm in 1975.