Stu taught me Urban Design 101 when I was a very young city and regional planning student, back in the 1980s. I still remember my first homework assignment: to map my old London neighborhood using landmarks and pathways that made sense to me. The end product was an extraordinary map of sensory memory: a foundation stone for understanding the built and natural environment as both physical and emotional landscapes, which was to serve me well throughout my career.
Stu was a big influence on my choice of thesis, to work on the Tenant’s Movement in Philadelphia, and on my decision to work at the Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services after I graduated with my Master’s degree in City and Regional Planning in 1982. His passion for historic preservation also influenced me: one of my favorite consulting projects was to work on the Preservation Plan for the City of Fitchburg, Ma.
Over the years as I settled in Massachusetts, married, had children and cycled between working and being a full-time mother, I lost touch with Stu. However, when our daughter Emma began her freshman year at Alfred University, I immediately knew we had to visit Ithaca and look up Stu and Sandy. I loved that visit! I saw how proud Stu was of my progress through life; how surprised and delighted he was that I had become an artist, and was weaving together my planning and landscape design work in silk paintings. More importantly, I saw that he really loved me as his old student from over thirty years ago. And that in his eyes I was still the shy, skinny, inquisitive London girl who soaked up everything he taught me.
I miss Stu Stein.