Bill Stumpf

William Eugene Stumpf (March 1, 1936 – August 30, 2006) was an American furniture designer noted for his detailed ergonomic study of seating, especially in the office environment, and his development of scientific criteria for chair design, including that a chair needed to support the body in a wide variety of positions from sitting upright to reclining, slouching or leaning forward.

Stumpf would go on to co-design the Embody, Ergon and Aeron, chairs for Herman Miller, the latter becoming the most-produced office chair globally. In a 1999 interview with Ideas Magazine, Strump noted that he's less concerned with "haute design", but rather, what he calls “the genial middle ground of everyday experience.”