Perhaps a story or two are in order. My memories of Steven predate those halcyon days of Apple Computer and go back to 1978-79. I first met him when I was giving a talk on EMC to a group of graduate trainees at Plessey UK in Hampshire. I happened to meet him again at the petty cash guichet and asked if he was interested in joining a little group of people as our department was about to grow rapidly at the time. The rest is history, so to speak. We became friends, as opposed to just work colleagues, at about the time he offered to help me rebuild my car engine in the lounge/living room of the house we were renovating. He introduced me to his friend Billy from The Orkneys – those were the days when we sipped or supped my home brew beer until we thought we could jump over the moon – it didn't take more than two or three bottles. There was even a time when we thought we could reach one of the inner planets if I would only open another bottle. Steven rode a motorcycle at the time and there were many occasions of a weekend when, after dinner and a few drinks, he'd bring his crash helmet in from his bike to stay the night, fearing that he'd had more than one too many for the road. He would mention to Rosalind that "I'll just take a wee walk aroond the block and see ya in a minit er tew." This was indicative that he'd stay the night. Music was always a feature with Steven. As I remember, he was a great fan of Roxy Music at the time, having just quit living with a household that played Genesis incessantly. (Andy and Dominique, where are you now?) One of his favorite tracks from around 1980 was 'Running Wild' where he waxed lyrical over Andy MacKay's sax playing.
Some time afterward, he moved to a house in Hedge End, another Southampton suburb a few miles north of us, and I well remember having dinner there, though he didn't have a table of any sort, let alone a dining table, at the time, and we listened to the Hornpipe from Handel's Concerti Grossi #7, though I have no idea what we had for dinner. Within a year or two, I had left Plessey and joined this little company called Apple Computer in Paris, so I'd visit friends when I was back in the UK and I would always make an effort to see Steven. One winter evening I went down to see him and he brought out a bottle of single malt that his mother had given him. He warmed it up between his knees, having turned the thermostat up to fifty five degrees especially for me. Ah, Steven, how environmentally conscious we were long before the time, and we didn't even know it! He was just starting out on his quest for something a little better than big box shop hi-fi, so there would always be music. If I remember correctly, he was using a Sugden amplifier and Celestion speakers as his set-up with what I thought was a strange turntable (I think it was from a company called Michell). I had introduced him to Bruch's Violin Concerto played by Kyung Wha Chung about that time, yet he was more inspired by the accompanying suite which was the Scottish Fantasia, one he'd never heard before. I think it was because it contained the folk themes from "I'm doun for lack o' Johnnie" and "Scots Wha Hae", which reminded him of home. Whenever I play this track from now on, I shall think fondly of Steven from times when we'd be drinking perhaps a glass of home brew beer in UK, a glass or two of Leffe at Steven's flat in Suresnes or a glass or two of Red Tail Ale here in California. Sometimes he'd quip cheerfully, "That lady can sairtainly play the fiddle." At other times he'd be far away in quiet musings.
The above are just a few memories and I haven't even mentioned Gordon Bennett, one of his favorite exclamations, with or without a middle name expletive. I have so many more happy recollections of Steven in Cork, in Dublin, in Berlin, in Stockholm, in Paris, in Lavenham (at The Swan Hotel), in Oxford, at Giverny, those long gone days in Southampton and so many times here in California.
I liked Steven, not just because he was fun to be with, not just because he was a little eccentric (an example being his love of Georges Brassens songs), not just because he was more than a little quirky, all great qualities in my mind, but most of all because he was kind, respectful, humorous and highly articulate. I can best sum up Steven by saying that he was a true 'mensch'.