Stephen Scott Ferebee Jr. was born July 30, 1921, in
Detroit to Stephen Scott Ferebee and Caroline (Cheatham) Ferebee. The family moved to
Henderson, North Carolina, Caroline Ferebee's hometown, in 1925, where Ferebee attended the public schools. In 1938 he enrolled in
North Carolina State University (NCSU) as a student of chemical engineering, but his studies were interrupted by
World War II. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant of infantry in 1942 and was assigned to the
101st Airborne Division, which participated in the
Normandy landings. Ferebee was wounded shortly after D-Day and was evacuated to England to recover. He was discharged in 1946. He then returned to NCSU but changed his major to architecture, graduating in 1948. Ferebee joined the
American Institute of Architects in 1952 as a member of the North Carolina chapter and served as chapter president in 1964. During the 1960s many North Carolina architects were concerned by the high number of NCSU architecture graduates who left the state and in 1965, Ferebee's successor,
Leslie N. Boney Jr., appointed him to chair a committee to explore the establishment of a second state architecture school in North Carolina. This committee lobbied the
UNC System to establish such a program at the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte, which was done in 1971. Ferebee served as the AIA South Atlantic regional director from 1968 to 1971 before being elected first vice president/president-elect for the year 1972 and president for the year 1973. As president Ferebee oversaw the completion of the AIA Headquarters and advocated for the better inclusion of women and people of color in the architectural profession. In 1972 he led a three-week cultural exchange delegation to the
Soviet Union and in 1973 led a similar delegation to
Poland. Ferebee was elected a
Fellow of the AIA in 1968 and after his presidency was elected to honorary membership in the
Royal Architectural Institute of Canada and the Society of Architects of Mexico. In 1992 he was awarded an honorary
Doctor of Fine Arts by the
University of North Carolina at Charlotte and was awarded the Wautauga Medal of
North Carolina State University and admitted to the
Order of the Long Leaf Pine in 2001. ==Personal life==