In this edition, we continue our interviews with local architectural legends. We spoke with retired GSBS Principal, Stephen Smith about his life, education and career. When did you decide to become an architect? I was going to be a history professor and got my bachelor honors degree in history at the U. I was headed for graduate school to become a Ph.D. history professor. I graduated in 1968. They did away with graduate deferments: (I was) eligible for the draft, advanced infantry training, and Vietnam. It was a path I was not interested in. I got into the Navy Officer Candidate School, where you had to volunteer to go to Vietnam. I volunteered for a refrigerator ship out of Newport, Rhode Island, and I got sent to Vietnam, one of the first three non-volunteers they sent. In the Navy, I realized that I was interested in a lot of things: art, science, people, politics. I thought, what can I do that covers the broadest range of interests? What about architecture? It has an art component, a technical component, a political component, and a social component that deals with people at every level. Maybe I’ll try that. I got out of the Navy and didn’t know anything about architecture because when you went to school in the sixties, you didn’t take classes like physics and calculus and all the prerequisites for architecture. You wouldn’t have anything to do with a slide rule. It was all existential poetry and sociology and politically relevant things. I had to do an extra year of school to be eligible for architecture school. BY FRAN PRUYN LEGENDS Stephen Smith 12 REFLEXION | 2022-23 | AIA Utah
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODQxMjUw