LA CROSSE. Paul “Steve” Stevenson, 99, died peacefully at home on Tuesday, January 5, 2010, in La Crosse, after celebrating his hundredth Christmas and New Year’s Eve with family and friends.

 Born in Easton, Pennsylvania, Aug. 20, 1910, he joined the U.S. Navy in 1929 and served his country with distinction throughout the Second Nicaraguan Campaign, in China during the Sino-Japanese War, in the Philippines and the Pacific Theater in World War II, and in the Korean Conflict. Beginning as a radio operator, he earned his commission, ultimately serving in World War II as a coding officer and a member of the team that worked on cracking the Japanese code. In the Philippines when the war broke out, he survived the bombing of the Cavite Navy Yard three days after Pearl Harbor, and was on Bataan and Corregidor. He was one of an all-volunteer crew that escaped on the severely damaged and unrecognizable U.S.S. Peary (DD226), surviving attacks by Japanese, Dutch, and Australian planes before ending up in Australia, leaving the Peary just before it was sunk in Darwin Harbor. He then traveled to Fremantle on the U.S.S. Langley (the first U.S. aircraft carrier), leaving the Langley just before it put out to sea and was also sunk. He participated in setting up a communications station in a Royal Australian Air Force facility, where he met his wife Phyllis, then a radio operator in the RAAF.

After his retirement in 1949, he was called back for the Korean Conflict, retiring again from the Navy in 1959. He later served as an electronics engineer in the Electronics Supply Office at Great Lakes Naval Training Center. There he received many awards for innovations, including projections of failure rates for electronic parts used by the Army, Navy, and Air Force, a project that led to stocking and equipment modifications and cost savings the Defense Department termed “beyond calculation.”

In 1973, after retiring from civil service, Steve realized a lifelong dream of uninterrupted travel with his wife Phyllis, traveling throughout the U.S. and Canada in their motorhome for ten years and taking trips to other countries.
Besides pursuing numerous hobbies, Steve was always involved in the many communities where he lived. As president of the local council in his Pennsylvania hometown in the 1950s, he led the effort that passed the first municipal anti-pollution ordinance in the United States. In Minnesota, he was active in the Ramsey County Friends of the Libraries, and since moving to La Crosse in 2002, he has been active in UW-L Learning in Retirement and as a volunteer with the WLSU radio station.

His favorite activity in his later years was amateur (“ham”) radio, and his call of WB9UAD was well known to hams worldwide, who often marveled at his code or “fist,” which some described as music, and which at 45 WPM was so “clean” or precise it could be read by computers. He and his wife (WB9UAE) founded the Inland Seas Chapter of the Society of Wireless Pioneers and the Inland Seas Beacon, now published as the SOWP’s Worldwide Beacon. He was also a member of the Old Timers Club, the Old Old Timers Club, the Morse Telegraph Club, and the American Amateur Radio League.

Steve is survived by his wife of 67 years, Phyllis; their three daughters, Patricia, Janet, and Katherine; three grandchildren, Tina, Michael, and Bennett; two great-grandchildren, Tristan and Sophie; and close friends he regarded as part of his family. Steve’s integrity, dependability, kindness, and generosity made the world a better place. We will miss him.

The family would like to thank Dr. Mark Brumm and the Franciscan Skemp Family Practice Clinic for their years of kindness and caring for Steve, and the Franciscan Skemp Hospice Program.

In accordance with Steve’s wishes, there will be no public service. Coulee Region Cremation Group at www.couleecremation.com is assisting the family.

 

 

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We feel privileged in having known you, albeit for such a relatively limited time of your long life. Thank you for being such a wonderful husband to my sister Phyl, and father to Pat, Janet and Kathy, and an inspiration to all those whose lives you shared. Our several visits to your country were made all the more enjoyable as a result of your friendship, care and advice. So young for a man of your years .

Love from Rodger and Shirley, and Allison, Chris and Cathryn and families, Australia.