By Dianne M. Pogoda

 

Teacher, mentor, designer, friend.

These were among the many ways kitchen and bath titan Ellen Cheever, CMKBD, ASID, CAPS, CLIPP, was remembered this week by peers and colleagues, who learned of her unexpected passing Feb. 13 at her home in Wilmington, Del. She was 72.

Cheever, who worked in the residential design world for more than a half-century, was a  legendary contributor to the industry, in design, product development, to the NKBA, and especially for her mentorship and education of legions of designers and industry professionals.

“Ellen was an inspiration to generations of young designers, through her work at Virginia Tech, her contributions to NKBA and the many books she penned,” said Bill Darcy, NKBA CEO. “We were honored to have established the Ellen Cheever Student Certification Scholarship as a tribute to her vast contributions to the industry in 2019, granting students at NKBA Affiliated Schools scholarships to help them along their journey to become certified designers.”

An author of more than 20 textbooks and manuals on K&B design standards, she was Director of Education at NKBA in the early Nineties, and wrote the original volumes, “Design Principles,” “Kitchen & Bath Products” and “Kitchen & Bath Project Management,” in NKBA’s Professional Resource Library.

“The industry has lost a great icon,” said Suzie Williford, EVP and Chief Strategy Officer of the NKBA. “Long before ‘influencer’ was a term tossed around so easily, Ellen had tremendous impact on our industry, as an educator, an author, and for her exceptional legacy to the Virginia Tech residential design program. She was an outstanding contributor to NKBA, writing the technical manuals that serve as the foundation for the industry standards in kitchen and bath design. She was inducted into the K&B Hall of Fame in 1992. More than that, she was a role model for aspiring young professionals and a dear friend.”

Cheever first gained national recognition in the Seventies and Eighties when she published several textbooks and conducted training programs across the U.S. and internationally, from North and South America to Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Her focus from 2000 onward was leading her private design and consulting business, Ellen Cheever & Associates based in Wilmington. She conducted seminars on design, sales and business management aspects of K&B retail and design operations.

In 2017, Cheever was named to KBDN’s Top 50 Industry Influencers list honoring the kitchen and bath industry’s most innovative dealers, designers and leaders.  That same year,  she was named one of Delaware’s Top Women in Business, and in 2020, Cheever led the design team in re-imagining the Family Kitchen centers at the Ronald McDonald House of Delaware.

In 2018, Cheever donated the body of her professional work to the Virginia Tech Apparel, Housing and Resource Management department. The library is housed within the Virginia Tech Center for Real Life Design, on the Blacksburg, Va., campus.

“Ellen Cheever played such a critical part in the establishment and success of Virginia Tech’s program in kitchen and bath design,” said Dr. Julia Beamish, head of the Virginia Tech Apparel, Housing and Resource Management department. “In 1989, she conferred the endorsement of our program from the NKBA and we have been involved and affiliated with the industry since then. She was a personal mentor and professional role model for us (Dr. Kathleen Parrott and me), particularly in our involvement with NKBA and the kitchen and bath industry. She helped us prepare for the CKE exam we took in 1993. We will miss her energy, support of excellence and the influence Ellen held as a teacher and a designer to us and our students.”

Parrott, a member of the NKBA Kitchen & Bath Hall of Fame and also a professor in Virginia Tech’s Department of Apparel, Housing, and Resource Management, added, “Ellen was a strong supporter of all educational outreach at the NKBA. She gave all of her publications, programs and scrapbooks, now the Ellen Cheever Kitchen and Bath Design Collection 1971-2018, to the Center for Real Life Design. Further, she established the Cheever Design Library which houses the collection, in the Center. Importantly, she was a mentor to our students, visiting campus, making presentations, and critiquing design projects.”

Originally from Sacramento, Calif., Cheever earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Home Economics from California State University. She contributed to and impacted many companies,  consulted, worked on the design and showroom sides of the business. Among many roles, she was design director for Heritage Custom Cabinetry, director of The Maytag Co.’s Design Idea Center, and a columnist for 16 years at Kitchen & Bath Design news, where she also helped to develop a dealer seminar series originally sponsored by Plain & Fancy Custom Cabinetry.

She is survived by her husband, Pietro “Pete” Giorgi, CMKBD, and his family. She also worked in the family’s Giorgi Kitchens & Designs in Wilmington, a K&B design and build firm, which was founded in 1960.

Colleagues, students, peers and friends shared an outpouring of fond memories, tributes and gratitude. Following are some of their comments.

  • Jan Neiges, CMKBD, Jan Neiges CKD LLC, NKBA Board of Directors: I made sure NOT to miss her whenever she was scheduled to present in Denver. Viewing her from the sidelines, I can say she raised the bar in our profession by focusing more on just cabinets…taking the whole space into consideration to include lighting and the material selection of hard surfaces… She gave so much of her knowledge back to us, back to the industry. We have not lost a legend, but gained more disciples because of her… Her knowledge lives on, amongst us.

 

  • John Petrie, CMKBD, CAPS, Mother Hubbard’s Custom Cabinetry; 2014 NKBA President: “My earliest memories of Ellen was when my father, Les Petrie, CMKBD, and I took our certification exam together at NKBA headquarters — with Ellen as our proctor! She spoke some very kind and brief words to us at the beginning and then not a peep until our test time was over. I remember thinking, “I have to pass this test, because I didn’t want to have this icon waste her time, should I fail.” We both passed! Not long after in my career (early 1990s), I was privileged to have been able to learn from Ellen’s teaching when she was at Heritage Custom Kitchens. The entire Heritage Dealer network benefitted from her knowledge.”

 

  • Nick Geragi, CKBD, ASID, NCIDQ, KBF Design Gallery: Ellen Cheever was the industry’s first rock star! Ellen was seen as the authority who brought academia to our profession. Her credibility along with her commitment to seeing that the Kitchen and Bath Design industry had a knowledge-based foundation, launched the careers of thousands. if the topic was design and education, Ellen was involved.[She invited] me to become an NKBA Educator and later co-writing and publishing the Industry Technical Manuals. We worked long tireless hours on her many book publications but it was always motivational with laughs and a bottle of wine. At an event celebrating the completion and printing of her Advanced Kitchen Design book she gave me a framed rough draft of an editorial note of a book page where she made fun of her critical commentary. I didn’t realize it at the time, but she was preparing me to later fill her position at NKBA. She became a strong mentor to me for many years… She was so likeable. Her personality was inviting and curious…She was self-effacing and always had a smile and a laugh.

 

  • Molly Switzer, AKBD, Molly N. Switzer Designs; president, NKBA Columbia River Chapter: Ellen was what can only be described as a Champion for our industry. She strived to connect designers and manufacturers to help the greater good of our industry. She pushed for continued education for designers and contractors and was a strong voice advocating for students. Her influences reach far deeper than many of us are able to recognize, and she will be greatly missed not only for her bountiful knowledge and expertise but also for her glowing smile and welcoming personality in every person she encountered.

 

  • Eliot Sefrin, Publisher Emeritus, Kitchen & Bath Design News: Ellen’s prodigious contributions to the kitchen and bath industry touched the lives of countless designers, colleagues, students, corporate officials and homeowners. She combined her talents and expertise to design showrooms, develop products, build dealer networks, produce training and marketing programs, and create trade show exhibits and editorial sets for major corporate clients. In addition, she was a prolific, longtime contributor to Kitchen & Bath Design News, serving both as a columnist and educator. She was widely recognized as the industry’s leading design expert.

 

  • Ebony Stephenson, CLIPP, CAPS, Designs By Ebony; president, NKBA Virginia State Chapter: Ellen was one of my mentors and was instrumental in giving me the courage to start my own company and go out on my own. We got to work together on the board at Virginia Tech. Ellen and her husband Pete always made me feel so warm and welcome when I was with them. With over five decades as a prestigious and celebrated figure in the design industry, I am grateful that Ellen got her flowers while she was still here to be able to receive them. Ellen, thank you for everything you have done for our industry … and for me personally and professionally. Your legacy will continue to live on.

 

  • Jonathan Barfell, Leibherr: I was first introduced to Ellen back in 2013, knowing nothing about the kitchen and bath industry. She immediately took me under her wing and became a mentor, educating me on the business and took me to meet Peter Salerno and experience my first showroom ever. For the next five years, our work partnership developed into an amazing friendship. We worked so hard to enhance the Jenn-Air Designer forums in Chicago, bringing in almost 1,000 incredibly talented designers over the years. Her presentations were constantly adapting with new information from the industry or what she learned from designers in attendance. While Ellen would be presenting, Pete and I would sneak in the back and eat sweets and I promised Pete I wouldn’t tell on him (but she always knew). Ellen nominated me for the NKBA’s Thirty Under 30 in 2015, for which I’m eternally grateful. I will never forget my time with Ellen and Pete as we toured Italy after EuroCucina. They took me to Rome, Lake Como and Venice, where I met some of their friends and family, and provided this young kid with an unforgettable experience. I hope she realized the impact she had on me and so many others.

 

  • Richard Anuszkiewicz, Design Galleria: The industry is remembering someone great, an original K&B industry leader and educator. A true trailblazer who forged paths for the next generation. I will forever be grateful for the support and mentorship Ellen Cheever has given me.  There are many fond memories, one now in particular I will hold dear. Ellen and I teamed up to speak at a cabinetry conference in November 2019. Her presentation was on the history of her career and life. Ellen commanded the room, sharing notable milestones and learning lessons with the crowd. I distinctly remember being impressed by her tenacity and dedication to the craft. Ellen made an imprint on many. Many who, just like me, will reflect on her advice, wisdom and camaraderie. This community is better by her hard work and her spirit will live on because of it.

 

  • Janice Costa, KB Designers Network: Over the past 27 years, I was fortunate to work with Ellen on many projects, and I never ceased to be more than a little awed by her boundless energy, incredible knowledge and talent, and profound generosity in sharing all of that with the industry, and those lucky enough to be in her orbit. She was truly legendary, not just in the body of work she amassed, but in the body of relationships — she was a teacher, mentor and friend to so many people, and all of us were the better for it.

 

  • Sherry Qualls, White Good: “In 1989, I was a young marketing person at Armstrong Flooring in Lancaster, Pa., just getting my head around all things residential kitchen and bath design. We had a big problem. Vinyl flooring was losing market share (remember your kitchen floor pre-1985) to hardwood and ceramic tile in the kitchen. I was charged to bring “fashion” to an old, arguably stodgy category for which Armstrong held the largest market share. One of my colleagues and I had read about this savvy woman who was doing cool stuff in kitchen and bath design. We invited Ellen Cheever to visit our product styling department and take a look at our portfolio. She graciously arrived, reviewed the line, quietly shook her head and said, “Can we do something a little more evocative?” After calming down the product styling team, we took the challenge! We re-imagined what vinyl flooring could be — instead of imitating, we invented. Ellen and her Heritage Custom Cabinetry team joined with us and we created a collaboration with WilsonArt and Kohler called the “Home Team.” We renovated an 1880’s kitchen using a new collection of products that launched one of the most successful Armstrong Vinyl Collections, “Color Passions,” since the early 1970’s. Ellen Cheever gave me the courage to do this. She gave Armstrong the endorsement it needed to take it up a notch. From there Ellen and I had a professional love-affair… We believed in each other. We helped reinvigorate kitchens and the many product categories that are a part of them. Our work on the VA Tech Advisory Board, travels on speaking tours, her collaboration on our White Good Design & Lifestyle Trends continued the quest. Her impact on our industry is difficult to quantify…Her legacy is that she made every space and person connected to it, better. More functional. More inspired. More accommodating. More beautiful. I will always hold her dear.

 

  • Jason Artus, AKBD, Dovetail Sales: I had the privilege of working with Ellen during our time together at Heritage Custom Kitchens very early  in my career. It was during this time that she took me under her wing and became a mentor, which along with being a genuine friend, she continued to be for the next two decades. Ellen was a woman of character who made and gave the absolute most of her every day. It is impossible to quantify the contributions Ellen has made to the NKBA, the design community, and to society. I am just one of thousands in this industry that are better at what they do because of Ellen Cheever-Giorgi. She had a tremendous impact on me as a person and I will be forever grateful.

 

  • Morgan Jones, Dave’s Cabinets; VT Graduate; 2021 Student Design Competition Winner: One of the earliest memories I have as an incoming student to the RED program was my mom and I walking through Wallace Hall during move-in. Since we weren’t familiar with that side of campus, I knew touring the building would be a good way to get acclimated and was surprised when we ran into one of my soon-to-be professors, Dr. Parrott — who stopped everything to take us around. To this day, I remember her turning the lights on in the Center for Real Life Design and our mouth dropping at how “one of a kind” the lab space was. Seeing Ellen Cheever’s investment in the program was the stepping stone I needed to ensure the next four years would make me competitive in the design industry. Even though we only met once, her endorsement of our program allowed students like me to graduate with confidence, knowing our skills were recognized by the NKBA and backed by her personal publication.