Steve was born in Long Beach, California, on December 17, 1941, and died December 19, 2021, two days after his 80th birthday. He had numerous health issues. He spent most of his childhood in Southern California and became a real “beach boy.”

Steve’s father was a petroleum geologist who was president of a small drilling and exploration company. Steve was proud of being the fourth generation to go into the oil business. His great-grandfather and his grandfather both worked in early oil booms in Pennsylvania, Texas, and Oklahoma. The family moved to Dallas when Steve was 16 and he went from swim team to football team.

He entered Stanford University in 1959 where he met his wife, Nancy Weidemann, before freshman year even started. They both obtained degrees and married in 1967. Steve went on for a Master of Science in Petroleum Engineering in 1970. He and Nancy welcomed a beautiful daughter, Kathleen, in 1973.

After obtaining degrees, Steve went to work for Arco Oil and Gas, choosing them for their reputation for protecting the environment. One of the oil fields he operated even became a wildlife refuge for the endangered San Joaquin kit fox. With Arco he went from junior engineer, drilling wells in south Texas to an operations manager for Arco Indonesia. The five and a half years the family spent living in Jakarta were great for everyone, particularly for Kathy who was able to attend a highly-rated international school.

Steve spent 30 years with Arco and worked all over Texas, the Rockies, California, Indonesia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. After early retirement from Arco, he became a senior vice president for an independent company, working in Africa. Later he became a consultant and worked in Venezuela as well as a short stint in Siberia.

The family moved quite a bit – 11 times – before Steve retired to northern New Mexico. Each move was interesting in its own way. Nancy inherited a family property here and they moved to Vashon full time in 2011.

Steve’s interests were all over the map: roadside geology, rock hunting, sports cars, hiking, camping, fly fishing, scuba diving, studying history, birding, orchard restoration and travel.

Some of the family’s more memorable travel experiences included exploring northern India by train, Sumatra by bus, South and Central America by cruise ship, sailing up the Yangtse in China through the three gorges by small ship and piloting a canal boat through southern France with the family. He and Nancy were planning another cruise when he died.

Steve is survived by Nancy, his wife of 54 years, their daughter, Kathleen Rose Hart (Mason), grandchildren Dylan and Ava and half siblings Andrew Rose and Mimi Rose. The family plans a memorial this summer.