Ellen Cheever, Pivotal Industry Figure for A long time, Dies

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Eliot Sefrin | February 13, 2021

WILMINGTON, DE — Ellen Cheever, CMKBD, ASID, CAPS, whose prodigious contributions to the kitchen area and tub marketplace touched the lives of innumerable designers, colleagues, students, company officers, and property owners, died Friday at her house in Wilmington, DE.

A Accredited Learn Kitchen area and Tub Designer, Qualified Member of the American Society of Interior Designers and a Accredited Growing old in Put Professional, Cheever – who started her occupation following graduating with a B.A. degree in household economics from California State University – cast a matchless legacy throughout practically 5 many years as an independent designer, educator, creator, showroom specialist, manufacturer’s rep, and govt in the cabinet-manufacturing sector.

A member of the Countrywide Kitchen area & Tub Association’s Corridor of Fame, and commonly identified as the industry’s leading design professional, Cheever was the writer of far more than 20 textbooks that are regarded the foundation of kitchen area and bathroom design and style training. Below her leadership as the NKBA’s Director of Instructional Solutions, the association’s Kitchen and Toilet Field Technical Manuals were very first revealed.

In addition to heading her award-successful Wilmington, DE-primarily based residential design business, Ellen Cheever & Associates, Cheever generated and offered CEU courses, seminars and symposiums on kitchen area/bath design and style, organization administration, revenue, showroom structure and linked subject areas to audiences through North The usa, as very well as New Zealand, Australia, Belgium, Italy, Germany, Japan, South The us, Canada, and other international locations.

She also blended her talents and abilities to style showrooms, produce products, develop dealer networks, make education and promoting applications, and create trade show reveals and editorial sets for main company customers.

Cheever, in addition, was a prolific, longtime contributor to Kitchen & Bathtub Layout Information, serving each as a columnist and an educator who designed and taught a successful collection of seminars that centered on improving the earnings-creating functions of residential kitchen and retail design and style studios.

Among the her most current achievements:

She was named in 2017 as a single of Delaware’s Top rated Ladies in Small business and named the similar year as one particular of the Top 50 Field Influencers by KBDN.
In 2017, KBDN bundled her in its inaugural record of Top rated 50 Innovators, a designation that honors business experts whose contributions have shaped the kitchen area and bath trade.
A recently renovated “Cheever Style Library,” housing a broad assortment of Cheever’s writings, was opened in 2018 at Virginia Tech’s Genuine Daily life Design Lab, in Blacksburg, VA.
The Ellen Cheever University student Certification Scholarship plan was set up in 2019 by the NKBA.
In 2020, she led a style and design team in re-imagining the loved ones kitchen area centers at the Ronald McDonald Residence of Delaware, while complementing her market involvement with her residential apply.

At the time of her loss of life, Cheever, in semi-retirement, continued to generate, seek the advice of, style and design, and present stay and on the web courses on place arranging, challenge administration, product or service specification and relevant subjects. She also collaborated on the two new-dwelling and transforming initiatives with the group at the Wilmington, DE-dependent Giorgi Kitchens & Designs, an award-successful, family members-owned design company.

Cheever is survived by her partner and business companion Pete Giorgi, Sr., CMKBD, a principal for several decades at Giorgi Kitchens & Designs.

— ELIOT SEFRIN