Stephen Barrett Chase; Interior Designer, Art Collector

Stephen Barrett Chase, 52, award-winning interior designer, art collector and Rancho Mirage philanthropist. Educated at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Art Center of Los Angeles, Chase began his interior design career with Kasden’s in the Los Angeles area and later formed Steve Chase Associates in Rancho Mirage. His work earned him the Hall of Fame award from Interior Design magazine and West Week’s designer of the year designation as well as several features in Architectural Digest. His clients included such celebrities as Rona Barrett, Dyan Cannon, Farrah Fawcett, Gene Hackman and Johnny Mathis and McDonald’s hamburger chain owner Joan Kroc. In his youth, Chase demonstrated his design ideas in elaborate models including a 250-room hotel and later an entire city, all on a scale of one-quarter inch to the foot. He designed his own 7,000-square-foot home in the desert with a living room large enough to display his 17-foot-wide painting by Helen Frankenthaler and other massive modern art works. Chase’s philanthropy included the Palm Springs Desert Museum, the Living Desert Reserve and the McCallum Theater. He served on the board of Desert AIDS Project. On Sunday in Palm Springs of AIDS.