Stephen L. De Staebler ’54

Stephen De Staebler died May 13, 2011, at his Berkeley (Calif.) home from complications of cancer.  

Born in St. Louis, he attended Kirkwood (Mo.) High School and took an interest in the visual arts from an early age. His Princeton major was religion, and he was active in the Creative Arts Program, among other organizations. After graduation, he served two years in the Army. After his discharge, he earned a master’s degree in fine arts from UC, Berkeley in 1961.

Stephen maintained a career-long commitment to the human figure. He evolved a style of fragmented figuration — at once assembling and disassembling human forms, producing works suggestive of ruins, both physically and metaphorically. The M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco will honor him with a retrospective in January.

Stephen was a member of the art faculty at San Francisco State University until his retirement in 1995. His works are displayed in many galleries nationwide. He received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, and an award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.

The class extends condolences to his second wife, Danae Lynn Mattes; their daughter, Arianne; and his sons, Jordan and David.