Bill Stumpf, one of Herman Miller's most gifted design partners and a pioneering figure in ergonomic seating, died Wednesday, August 30, 2006, of complications stemming from abdominal surgery. He was born March 1, 1936, in St. Louis.
Best known for his 1994 collaboration with Don Chadwick on the Aeron chair, a disruptive innovation in work seating that was immediately accessioned into the permanent collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art, Mr. Stumpf was also an accomplished writer and lecturer on design, and a powerful advocate for civility and originality in American life.
This summer, Mr. Stumpf was named the winner of the 2006 National Design Award in Product Design, which will be presented to him posthumously on October 18 by the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.
Mr. Stumpf's association with Herman Miller began in 1970 when he joined the staff of the Herman Miller Research Corporation. After establishing his own firm in 1972, Mr. Stumpf created the Ergon chair, the first modern ergonomic work chair. Later, in partnership with Chadwick, he produced the groundbreaking Equa and iconic Aeron chairs. He also was a co-designer of the Ethospace system, with Jack Kelley.
He designed outside the furniture industry, as well, including a series of Pur Water Filtration devices for a company now owned by Proctor & Gamble, and for Lexmark International, makers of printers and computer equipment.
"I enjoy myself, and I do it through design," he declared in an interview a few years ago. "I love beauty, and I love the availability of beautiful things and useful things immediately around me."
Mr. Stumpf earned a bachelor's degree in Industrial Design from the University of Illinois in 1959 and a master's in Environmental Design from the University of Wisconsin. He taught or lectured at the Royal College of Art, the Glasgow School of Art, the Cranbrook Academy, the Illinois Institute of Technology, the Rochester Institute of Technology, in addition to his alma maters.
"Bill Stumpf was a key figure in Herman Miller's transformation into a research-based, problem-solving innovator," said Don Goeman, Herman Miller's Executive Vice President of Research, Design and Development. "He made an enormous contribution to the company's commercial success, but he will be warmly remembered by his friends and colleagues for his wit, creativity, humility, and the keen insights that he shared in his relationships and through his design."
Herman Miller's Chairman of the Board Michael Volkema praised Mr. Stumpf as a "great human being, full of both talent and grace."
Mr. Stumpf was given the IDSA (Industrial Design Society of America) Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001 for his imposing body of work.
As a designer, Mr. Stumpf gained inspiration from the legends of Herman Miller's mid-century modernist movement, including Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson and Alexander Girard. He also attributed his success to the demands placed upon him by Herman Miller's founder, D.J. DePree.
"I work best when I'm pushed to the edge," he once said, "when I'm at the point where my pride is subdued, where I'm an innocent again. Herman Miller knows how to push me that way, mainly because the company still believes--years after D.J. DePree first told me--that good design isn't just good business, it's a moral obligation. Now that's pressure."
Mr. Stumpf believed in the power of design to "advance the arts of daily living" and to deliver "satisfaction, rather than merely responding to needs and wants." He also was a tireless advocate for originality in all things.
"The people who set the reference points, there's something in them, in their spirit, that drives them towards that originality, drives them towards that place," Mr. Stumpf declared a few years ago, adding that "there is more risk in copying than there is in innovating. In other words, there's more risk dwelling over gratuitous differences than there is trying to create real differences."
Mr. Stumpf published a thoughtful lament on the loss of civility in the United States in 1998, entitling it The Ice Palace That Melted Away (Pantheon Books), which now is used as a textbook in many design schools. In the book, he held up design as a noble pursuit which "aims to make our existence more meaningful, connect us to natural realities, show us the advantages of graceful restraint, infuse serious work with playful humor, and extend human capacity--physical and emotional and spiritual."
His funeral will be a private family event. A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date in West Michigan to honor Mr. Stumpf's remarkable life and contributions to furniture design.
Mr. Stumpf, who lived in Stockholm, WI, not far from his studio in Minneapolis, is survived by his wife, Sharon, and two of their children, Jon Stumpf and Carol Stumpf, and five grandchildren. He was predeceased by three sons, David, Karl and Erich.
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