David Stiles of East Hampton and New York City, an author and prolific builder of treehouses and other garden structures, died of heart failure at home in New York on Dec. 28. He was 91.
Always creative, according to his wife, Jean Trusty Stiles, as a child he spent much of his time in school envisioning other things, such as treehouses, forts, and huts. He loved to draw, and an aptitude test he took while already at Duke University revealed that he ought to go to art school, prompting him to transfer to Pratt Institute in New York, where he studied industrial design and graduated fourth in his class. Later on, he taught illustration there for a couple of years.
He loved to travel and explore how other people lived, so he studied for a year at the Academy of Fine Arts of Florence and spent three months on a motor scooter visiting six countries and sleeping in youth hostels.
Upon his return to the States Mr. Stiles got a job as an exhibit designer, creating the Kodak exhibit and others for the industrial designer Donald Deskey at the New York World’s Fair. Around then he formed his own business as an architectural renderer, working for many leading architectural firms in New York.
He also started a family, and the ideas he collected for things to build for his two boys, Jaime and Eben, which he took to Arco Publishing, led to his first book, “Fun Projects for Dad and the Kids.” He won an award in 1978 for two of the designs that were built for A Playground for All Children, a competition under the auspices of the City of New York.
His lifelong passion for building things was further realized in the early 1960s, when he bought an old barn in East Hampton from Hugh Filer and moved it to Hampton Waters, turning it into a house, doing much of the work himself. After that he designed and built several houses and additions in the area. Around this time he and Ms. Stiles began writing what would turn out to be 27 how-to books on building projects ranging from playful treehouses to sheds, gazebos, garden houses, and cabins, many of the projects originating from the small buildings they had constructed. The most recent book is “Backyard Playgrounds,” published by Skyhorse Publishing. Among his more unusual accomplishments was building a treehouse in three hours on the “Today” show.
Over time the couple’s articles appeared in several magazines and newspapers, including Architectural Digest, Country Journal, and The New York Times.
One thing that makes their books particularly accessible is the merging of the plans for each project — hand-drawn by Mr. Stiles — with detailed instructions written by Ms. Stiles. Because of his creative imagination, he was able to design things through children’s eyes. He received the Library Association’s Notable Children’s Book Award for “The Treehouse Book.”
Friends and acquaintances remember his warmth and his genuine interest in people. There was no artifice or affectation or jockeying for position. Those who knew him have said they will miss his gentle soul and his smile, that he brought light into others’ lives, and that he was “forever young and handsome.” Several made a reference to his having been a brilliant designer, illustrator, and writer, loving father and husband, and a warm and supportive friend.
Mr. Stiles was a member of the Society of Illustrators in Manhattan and the Devon Yacht Club in Amagansett.
David Ramsay Stiles was born on Oct. 1, 1933, in Bryn Mawr, Pa., a son of the former Ellen Fillebrown Stiles and Capt. William Callender Irvine Stiles (U.S. Navy Ret.); he grew up in Summit, N.J.
He is survived by his sons, Jaime Stiles of Los Angeles and Eben Stiles of Woodstock, N.Y., by his daughter, Lief Anne Stiles, and her husband, Tom Catlett, of Richmond, Va., and by his wife of 56 years, Jean Trusty Stiles. He also leaves a grandson, William Stiles Catlett, 10. A brother, Albert Stiles of California, survives, as do 10 nieces and nephews. His sister, Ellen Klinck, and another brother, John Stiles, died before him.
In his later years, Mr. Stiles used his drawing ability for a new hobby in which he produced cartoons about current events, usually with a satirical or political angle, and signed them “Gaston,” after his dog.
