By Jazmin Smith

Stephen Deger impacted lives at UK for four decades.

Deger, an associate professor, died in early January, but left his mark on the School of Architecture and UK. He was known for his dry humor, said friend and colleague Bruce Swetnam. 

“Steve was very bright and witty, and he had a dry sense of humor. You had to be ready for it,” Swetnam said.A memorial will be held for Deger on April 14 at 6 p.m. in Center Theater in the Student Center. There will be a reception held in Pence Hall following the memorial. 

Swetnam, Deger’s teaching assistant in the 1970s and is now a professor at UK, said he had many fond memories of Deger. 

“He would always bring his lunch,” Swetnam said. “Some days I would stop by and he’d save his lunch for the next day and we would go eat at K-Lair together. I always enjoyed that.”

Deger taught third year studio for most of his career, Swetnam said, but he also really enjoyed working with freshmen.  For architecture students, Deger was one of the first professors they would meet at UK because he was a student adviser and inspired his students from the day they set foot on campus for registration. 

“Professor Deger was the first faculty member I met when I visited UK. He sat down with my family and me, and he was really encouraging,” said UK graduate Ashlyn Bruce. “He made me feel like UK could be my home.”

Before Deger became such a professor at UK, he received his undergraduate degree in architecture from the University of Cincinnati in 1963. He went on to get his master’s degree in architectural engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1966. The next fall he began teaching at UK. 

In addition to the memorial service the College of Design has created the Stephen C. Deger Scholarship fund for incoming undergraduates.