The 60’s and 70’s – Good Ol’ Boy
A late baby-boomer, Steve's early years reflect his working career: diverse, adaptable and active. Growing up in Yazoo City, Mississippi in the 60's and 70's was reminiscent of a good ol’ boy in a Mark Twain novel. Neighborhood football, bottle-rocket wars, building forts, swinging on grape vines across the gulleys and snake hunting in the creek were the things to do.
The 80’s – Into the World We’re Thrown
The 80's were a new era when Steve joined the US Air Force after college became unaffordable. Stationed in the UK, he met his wife, Rose. During his second overseas tour, this time in Germany, Steve was the sole administrator for over 400 linguists during cold war spy games, providing personnel duties and editing operation instructions and procedures. During his off time, he worked towards and was awarded his associates degree in business administration from the University of Maryland.
Leaving the USAF in 1985, Steve, his wife and their newborn daughter moved back to the UK near Cambridge. During the day Steve produced course materials for a small entrepreneurial business that taught presentation, negotiation and writing skills to international businessmen who were attending local language schools. During the evenings Steve attended the Cambridge College of Arts and Technology, where he received a Certificate of Industrial Management after two years of study.
In 1986 Steve started Liberty DTP, taking advantage of the birth of Apple’s Mac. His clients were mainly local industry and London publishers.
The 90’s – In the Midnight Hour
When the recession hit the UK in 1990, Steve and his family, now two daughters, moved to Houston. He worked as a technical writer and graphic designer with Curtin Matheson Scientific (now part of Fischer), a major scientific equipment distributor. During the evenings, Steve freelanced as a graphic designer with Stewart & Stevenson, a Fortune 500 industrial manufacturing company. A few years later he joined that company, eventually becoming their graphics supervisor. Often working to the midnight hour, Steve continued to freelance and grew his private business to include diverse clients such as GE, the Galleria Chamber of Commerce and the Marion Group. In 2000, Steve joined Cameron, a leading oil & gas equipment manufacturer, as a senior designer, where his contributions were rewarded with Business Marketing Association Lantern Awards for technical literature, special events, product catalog and multimedia.
2003 – London’s Calling
London called in the new millennium, so it was back to the UK with the family, which now included three daughters. Although Steve had always vowed to never work for printers or design agencies, an opportunity with a dynamic design group was offered and he took it. For the first time in his career, Steve could bike to and from work, of course stopping at the pub on the way home. Was this man heaven? He produced some of his best and most challenging work at One Vision: web design and build, ads, promotional copy and animations. Unfortunately, a few years later the company folded. Rather luckily, a vendor heard the news and offered Steve a job to grow the design side of their print business, where Steve stayed for two years.
2008 – Wish You Were Here
In the summer of 2008, Steve and family moved back to Houston at the request of his two daughters, who had moved back some years earlier. MOGAS Industries, the global leading manufacturer of severe service ball valves hired Steve as their website communications specialist to maintain and develop their website, including social media marketing and search engine optimization; host online training webinars; and manage document and video translations. |