D. J. and Nellie DePree attending the opening of The History of Herman Miller exhibition at North Dakota State University.

As a senior interior design student at University of Texas at Austin in 1970, Warren Platner spoke us about architecture and furniture design.  One of our interior design graduates went to work for his company in New Haven, Connecticut following this visit after she graduated.  My favorite memory of Platner was a question and answer session that I was able to attend.  He said: “a classic is something you look at often and always accept as it is.”  His furniture designs remain a staple of the mid century modern style.

This photo of D.J. DePree standing next to my wife, Carole, holding our two month old daughter, Anna, was taken when D. J. and Stephen Frykholm visited the NDSU where I taught.  Dezso Sekely and I co-curated an exhibition of the history of Herman Miller in the Art Gallery in the Home Economics Building at North Dakota University (formerly known as North Dakota State University.)  Both Frykholm and DePree attended the opening of the exhibition and Frykholm spoke to my design class. Frykholm's posters are collectible icons of the Herman Miller legacy.