William Stern

William Frederick Stern died on March 1, 2013, and was buried in Cincinnati, Ohio on March 17, 2013. A Memorial commemorating the life of William Frederick Stern, FAIA, will be held at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, April 29, 2013 at The Menil Collection, 1533 Sul Ross, in Houston. His family will meet his friends at a reception at the museum following the Memorial.
Bill Stern was born in Cincinnati January 15, 1947 where he attended Cincinnati Country Day School. Following receipt of his BA degree, cum laude, from Harvard College in 1969, he attended the Harvard Graduate School of Design, from which he received the Master of Architecture degree. After initially working in New York City, he moved to Houston in 1976, where he worked for two of Houston's major architecture firms before opening his own practice in 1979. In 1999, with his long-time colleague, David Bucek, he formed Stern and Bucek Architects.
At the time of his death Bill Stern was a member of the Board of Trustees and the Collections Committee of The Menil Collection and a member of the Collections Committee of the Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He had been a member of the boards of directors of the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, and of the Rice Design Alliance and was a founding editor of the latter's publication, Cite. He was an editor of Ephemeral City: Cite Looks at Houston, published in 2003.
For nearly three decades Bill Stern was an adjunct associate professor at the College of Architecture of the University of Houston. Just prior to his death the Houston Chapter of the American Institute of Architects had awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award.
He is survived by his mother, Mary S. Stern; his brother, Dr. Peter J. Stern (and his wife, Sandra), all of Cincinnati; his sister, Peggy Stern Graeter (and her husband, James), of Potomac, Maryland; and six nieces and nephews.
Memorial contributions may be made to the William F. Stern Memorial Fund, The Menil Collection, 1515 Branard, Houston, Texas 77006.