Steven Waldeck, a Parkersburg High School graduate, created this artwork in the 450-long walkway between terminals A and B in the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. (Photo Provided)

WAYLAND, Mass. — Parkersburg High School graduate Steven Michael Waldeck, a well-known artist in Chicago who created a large artwork at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, has died in Massachusetts.

Waldeck, a 1961 graduate of PHS, died peacefully Dec. 26, 2017 at the Hospice Residence Parlin House in Wayland, Mass., from complications due to Alzheimer’s, according to his wife Jane (Clarren) Waldeck, who is also an artist. He was 74 years old and had lived in Spring Grove, Ill.

Memorial services will be held in Chicago and Boston at a future date, Jane said.

Born in Spencer, Steve Waldeck spent his high school years in Parkersburg, graduating from Parkersburg High School in 1961. He enjoyed returning to Parkersburg to see family members and to attend high school reunions, Jane Waldeck said.

He was the son of Ernest Raymond “Ray” Waldeck and Ona Waldeck, who taught in Wood County Schools.

Artist Steven Waldeck stands in the Atlanta airport, the location of his celebrated art installation. (Photo Provided)

Waldeck graduated from Ohio University in 1965 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and received a Master of Fine Arts at the University of California Berkeley in 1967, as well as the Eisner Prize in Sculpture.

He met his wife, Jane Clarren, while attending Ohio University and they were married in 1966 in Great Neck, N.Y.

Waldeck served as an adjunct professor of sculpture at U.C. Berkeley until moving to Chicago, Ill., in 1969 to accept a teaching position at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he remained a professor for 40 years, according to his obituary. Waldeck began his time at the SAIC by teaching sculpture but it was his interest in merging technology with art that led to him pioneering the curricula expansion with innovative media, including kinetic, electronic and neon art, as well as time and sound, his wife said.

In addition to teaching, Waldeck traveled as a professional artist and lecturer. “His unique and elaborate work in kinetic art, which included light, sound and traditional painting was commissioned for large permanent installations at the McDonald’s Corporation headquarters, as well as other corporate offices, the Cleveland Clinic, and the Illinois Central Railroad headquarters in Chicago, among other sites. He participated in multiple museum exhibitions and gallery shows across the nation, as well as internationally, between 1969 and 2001,”Jane Waldeck said.

Under Chicago Mayor Jane Byrne’s leadership in 1982, Waldeck and two other well-known artists, Richard Hunt and Barry Tinsley, curated “Mayor Byrne’s Mile of Sculpture” at Navy Pier. This led to an expansion both of the size and caliber of public art expositions held at this Chicago landmark for years to come, Jane Waldeck said.

Among Waldeck’s most recent achievements are his commissioned projects “Passages,” located at the College of Lake County in Illinois, and “Flight Paths” in the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.

“Flight Paths,” Waldeck’s final and most advanced work, is a 450-foot long narrative forest that stretches the length of the concourse between terminals A and B within the Atlanta airport, Jane said. This piece involving forms, LED lights, video and kinetic effects “is a tribute to Steven’s creativity and innovative use of technology, as well as a confirmation of his belief that all media should be available for artistic expression,” Jane said.