Stephen B. Guild #88

Steve attended Alexandria’s Hammond High School where, in 1971 he was president of the Junior Class with then be transferred as Senior to the combined T.C. Williams High School. As a leader of the Hammond transferees and a key member of the championship “Titans” football team, he was instrumental in facilitating the successful integration of the three Alexandria high schools.

A native of Virginia, he was an artist, craftsman, draftsman and musician. He was a 1976 graduate of Princeton University with a degree in art and archaeology.

During his 27-year career as a painter, he created hundreds of works and was recognized for large, sensuously colored "synthetic constructions," the basis of three series of paintings he was working on. His work was widely collected. A landscape artist, his favorite location was the view of the Lake Carnegie dam.

He founded Arcturus Painting in 1980, specializing in specialty finishes, color-stained concrete and surface restoration. His commissions included the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Auldbrass Plantation in South Carolina and numerous projects of architect Michael Graves in New York, Cincinnati and Princeton.

He was widely known for his mastery of color and his restorative work, which is reflected in many Princeton area homes.

He played several musical instruments, was a champion swimmer and all-round athlete, an amateur astronomer, studied Joyce and Caravaggio and was a film enthusiast.

"As everyone in town knew, few possessed as quick a wit as Steve," said his close friend, Eric Lubell. "Beyond this, he will be missed mostly for the love he gave so easily and kindly as a friend, employer, father and husband. His voice was soft and solicitous of others, he was always quick to laugh and quicker yet to speak out on issues he believed in."

He is survived by his parents, Henley and Virginia Guild of Alexandria, Va., wife Monica Lange; daughters Elli and Sophia; brother Henley Guild of Richmond, Va.; and sister Susan Braun, also of Richmond.