Living Life to the Fullest
While at the University of Minnesota, a fraternity brother set Steve up with Donna, a girl from his hometown of Spring Valley MN. Steve and Donna were married two years later. They later had two children, Chris and Alisa, and three lovely grandchildren. The whole family remained in the DC area and spent a great deal of time gathering together and talking almost daily. Steve also felt rewarded by the good relationships with his brothers, Creighton and Robert, and with his nieces and nephews.
Steve and Donna enjoyed the cultural opportunities that the DC area provided and held season tickets for theater, ballet, and opera, as well as season tickets for Maryland sports for decades. He was deeply satisfied with how his life and his choices allowed him to read the best works by great authors and poets, see some of the world's greatest works of art, and attend countless plays and operas. In his words, "this has given me a tremendous feeling of satisfaction in not missing the best creations of humankind before me."
Steve officially retired from U of Maryland in 1998, but stayed connected as Professor Emeritus and continued to write books and give lectures on management and teaching topics, most recently a book on teaching written in collaboration with his daughter and a former PhD student. He was deeply touched by his rewarding relationships with his incredible colleagues and friends in the U of MD business school and across the whole campus. He was also enriched greatly by his relationships with the PhD students and other brilliant students he mentored over his lifetime.
In his retirement years he served as a volunteer medical counselor for prostate cancer and Guillaine Barre Syndrome (GBS) paralyzed patients. He was a survivor of both illnesses.
Steve and Donna loved travel and finding the beautiful places in the world that stir the soul. The family traveled most frequently to the coast of Maine, but other favorites of Steve and Donna were Middlebury, Vermont, and many of the incredible national parks in the western US, and western Canada. Steve also loved Japan and spent 6 monhts there as a Fulbright scholar. Other international travel took them throughout Europe when Chris and Alisa were young children, to Ireland, a very special place holding Steve's family roots, as well as to Australia, Italy, Taiwan, China, and Poland.
Steve felt he had been lucky in life in every respect, so our reflection of his life should be one of celebration and not of sadness.