Graduate architecture student
named Raiford Stripling scholar

Stephen Dietert, a student who plans to begin the Master of Architecture degree program at Texas A&M this fall, has been awarded a scholarship endowed by a Texas preservation group named after legendary Aggie architect Raiford Stripling, who helped design many of Texas A&M's historic buildings.

David Woodcock, FAIA, professor of architecture and director emeritus of the Center for Heritage Conservation, made the announcement at the 2010 Texas Old Missions and Forts Restoration Association's annual meeting April 16 in West Columbia, Texas.

"Stephen is honored to be the 2010 TOMFRA Raiford Stripling Scholar," Woodcock said. "He plans to focus his studies on sustainable design and historic preservation to equip himself to 'design with a sense of place.'"

After earning an undergraduate degree in history from Texas State University in 2005, Dietert earned a certificate in AutoCAD drafting and took a job with architect Peter W. Lewis in Kerrville, Texas.

He began the Career Change Program at the Department of Architecture in summer 2009. The program enables students who lack previous education in architecture to become prepared to enter the Master of Architecture degree program.

"Dietert grew up in Kerrville, and his family has deep roots in Texas," said Woodcock. "His forebears were millwrights from Germany who constructed five mills in the Kerrville area, where his family's ranch was established in 1883."

After earning a degree in architecture in 1931 from what was then called the A&M College of Texas, Raiford Stripling worked with college architect Frederick E. Giesecke and staff architect Samuel Charles Phelps Vosper on many of the college’s important buildings that were designed and built in the period of the Great Depression.

- Posted: April. 28, 2010 -