Former Yellow Springs resident Budd Steinhilber died peacefully on Jan. 25, 2021, from natural causes, in care of hospice, at his apartment in Greenbrae, Calif. He was 96.
A forward-thinking “Renaissance Man,” Budd was a multi-talented, ecology-minded industrial designer and environmental activist, who received a grant from the NEA in 1990 to show how designers were trying to cope with the environmental crisis. A member of the Industrial Design Society of America, he also designed for print, media, product packaging and electronics.
While working for the J. Lippincott Agency in New York in 1947, Budd was among a group of designers, including Read Viemeister of Yellow Springs, hired by Preston Tucker to design the innovative but financially ill-fated Tucker automobile.