Stephen Grabow Obituary

Stephen "Steve" Harris Grabow was born on January 15, 1943, in New York City to Ida (England) and Philip Grabow. He passed away on January 19th in Bloomington, Minnesota. He is survived by his daughter, Nicole Grabow, son-in-law, Martin Reames, and granddaughter, Elizabeth Reames (all of Bloomington, Minnesota); sister-in-law Ingrid Grabow, niece Lisa Swanson, and nephew Eric Grabow (all of the greater Los Angeles area, California). He was preceded in death by his parents and his brother, Richard. Steve grew up in Sheepshead Bay and Brighton Beach, in Brooklyn, New York. He developed a life-long passion for music through his regular attendance as a young man at the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera. His love of travel was sparked by seeing cruise ships pass through the Verrazano Narrows, and he paid for his first trans-Atlantic passages during college by serving as a steward on the s.s. Constitution. He attended the University of Michigan on a tennis scholarship and was awarded a Bachelor of Architecture in 1965. He was in the audience when Senator John Kennedy gave a speech on the steps of the Michigan Union in 1960 announcing the creation of the Peace Corps. This inspired Steve to join the Corps and serve as an architect in North Africa between 1967 and 1969. He met Eileen Williams in Tunisia; they were married from 1969-1983.

He completed graduate work at Pratt Institute (1966) and a doctorate in urban design at the University of Washington (1973), and he taught architecture at the Universities of Arizona, California, and Dundee, Scotland. In 1973 he joined the architecture faculty at the University of Kansas (KU), retiring in 2017 as Full Professor. He served as the chair of the architecture program and as an officer of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, where he was instrumental in establishing a separate graduation regalia and academic degree designation for architecture graduates in higher education. Steve taught courses in architectural design, urban history, and design theory. Many KU architectural graduates will remember his fourth-year studios focused on concert halls and opera houses. Between the 1980s and his retirement he directed numerous study-abroad programs in North Africa, Europe, and Great Britain. Many KU students secured professional appointments in Chicago architecture firms through the travel program Steve directed there between 1987 and 2012. All his travel programs were enhanced by symphony and opera performances, which was his way of transmitting his passion for music to design students.

Steve's research focus was the intellectual and professional foundations of modern architecture, especially the Bauhaus Movement. He was a co-director of the 1975 annual conference of the Environmental Design Research Association in Lawrence. He is the author of numerous academic and professional publications, and his scholarly reputation was assured with his 1983 biography of Christopher Alexander - The Search for a New Paradigm in Architecture. He was the recipient of research awards from the American Fulbright Commission, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts. He served for many years as the graduation marshal of the University of Kansas and the KU ombud.

Steve Grabow was a loving and devoted father and grandfather, a valued and trusted faculty colleague, and a respected and generous teacher and mentor to two generations of architecture students. He enriched the lives of those who passed through Marvin Hall between 1973 and 2017, and his presence is still visible in the quality of the KU architecture curricula, the excellence of the buildings designed across the world by his former students, and the spirit of discovery and inquiry in the faculty. The family requests memorials be directed to the Stephen Grabow Scholarship at the KU Endowment Association. A celebration of Steve's life will be held in Lawrence at a date to be announced, and his ashes will be inurned at Pioneer Cemetery on the KU campus.