Steve Durham – My Husband, My Friend
Steve was an endlessly entertaining person to me. He was the smartest person I have ever known. He read anything that came into his orbit. His interests and curiosities were far reaching. He collected guns and shot traps. He was a gourmet cook. He was fascinated by the heavens and formed an astronomy club with a couple of his friends. They held star parties at various elementary schools where the club brought telescopes and set them up for the kids and their families. He managed hundreds of personnel in his day job but liked to go shopping with me. He loved to go rock hounding in the mountains and deserts of Nevada. He loved riding motorcycles and quads and side by sides in the desert. And he could build; oh, he loved to build anything. He was the definition of eclectic. I absolutely adored his mind.
Steve could figure out how to do anything that he set his mind to. He never shied away from taking something apart to find out how it worked and to see if he could improve or fix it. He was one of those people who could fix anything, and he did it with this silent glee that was incredibly sweet to watch. It makes me smile to remember.
He was constantly thinking. Our private joke was that he had a hamster on a wheel in his head and that it was constantly spinning. I used to laugh at him and say I could see “Hammy the Hamster” running as fast as he could, as Steve figured out his latest challenge. And he just loved a good challenge to his beautiful mind.
Steve was intensely creative. His notes from meetings were always riddled with sketches and diagrams of anything that was occupying his thoughts at the time. He was a remodeler and a builder to his very core and many times those sketches became the basis for something that we were working on at the time. Post retirement we remodeled several houses for his children. Steve loved his family and loved to help them by upgrading their houses. We liked working together on houses and yes, I loved working with him on those projects. They were good times.
Sometimes we would travel across the country to visit family. Steve was fun to travel with because he would always take the long way home. We had so many adventures going thousands of miles way off course. Oregon, Kentucky, Colorado, Wyoming were all fun diversions that we enjoyed together.
I believe Steve will be looking down on this, the ultimate diversion from the road most travelled and smile. Happy travels my Love.
Donna
