John Stephenson was born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1929. He received his BA in education at the University of Northern Iowa. After graduating, John enlisted in the Air Force and served for four years during the Korean War. He then went on to receive his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, and by 1959, he was teaching ceramics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Stephenson received a research grant to study ash glazes and firing techniques in Japan for a year. It was there he began to move from functional ceramics to more sculptural work. Stephenson’s work evolved into large scale sculptures that explored positive and negative space. He began incorporating metal into his work to help support the increased scale. Stephenson was a professor and later head of ceramics at the University of Michigan for over 35 years and inspired many ceramic students with his wise guidance. He shared a studio with his wife, ceramic artist and ACC Fellow Susanne Stephenson, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, until his death in 2015. John Stephenson is fondly remembered as a sculptor and educator whose life and work helped transform the field of contemporary ceramics nationally and internationally. He was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2010.