A seasoned designer whose distinguished tenure for Herman Miller resulted in the award-winning Ergon, Equa, and dot-com-synonymous/simply ubiquitous Aeron chairs (with Don Chadwick), Stumpf (1936-2006) not only knew enough about offices to be authoritative in their dismissal, he knew a lot about everything. Having previously authored The Ice Palace That Melted Away: Restoring Civility and Other Lost Virtues to Everyday Life, Stumpf’s next manuscript concerned what he called “the arts of daily living”—a maddeningly broad topic that he approached with both wizardly acumen and childlike curiosity.
