We are beyond sad to announce the passing of Fritz Steele (1938-2020). We will laugh less without his sense of humor, but we can take comfort in how he charmed us and inspired thousands to care for each other and see the world in a better way. Fritz grew up in Topeka, Kansas, graduated from Yale in 1960 and then earned his Ph.D. in management at MIT in 1965. It was his love of architecture and watching people that resulted in him becoming the worldwide scholar of physical settings and behavior change. Fritz was also an internationally known consultant in organizational effectiveness, a pioneer in the fields of organizational development, change management and organizational ecology (i.e., the design of our physical settings). He consulted to many Fortune 500 companies.
Pinhead Steele (Dr. Fritz Steele) was a regular visitor at Prickly for years. Sellers and Steele designed his house and studio on the Prickly loop road that was a sensational collaborative design build event. Tom Luckey built the cushy living room floor of padded shapes and the hard to believe revolving bedroom. Exposed conduits, tilt-down beds, ladders, outdoor showers, secret geared doors and lots more. Covered by eight pages of photos in the Yale Alumni Magazine, his house became a center for a full range of meetings, design sessions, but mostly lots of laughter.
An unkind or discouraging word never came out of his mouth and his tennis games were awesome to watch. He and John Phelon battled for a singles championship at Sugarbush that lasted hours and hours. And, he challenged anyone at the Prickly court Bobby Riggs-style with chairs, rubber boots and raincoats and he still would win, bringing down the house with laughter.
A fund is being established, the Steele Fund, to annually recognize excellence in design. Contributions are welcome; send to Madsonian Museum, Steele Fund, P.O. Box 288, Warren, VT 05674.
