Steve was born in Aurora, IL and grew up in the NW Suburbs of Chicago. After completing the journey described herein, he took a summer off to work for Ralph Frese at the Chicagoland Canoe Base before completing a third season of paddling from Fort McMurray Alberta to the mouth of the Yukon River with his friend Bill Penn. The rocks and landforms he saw during these travels inspired a deep curiosity about the Earth, and he started taking classes at Oakton Community College in Skokie, IL. He worked various jobs between semesters including factory work, canoe and kayak sales and repair, and working as a deckhand on barge tows on the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. Enrolling at the University of Montana in 1980, he earned a B.A. and M.S. in Geology and spent 30+ years teaching Earth Sciences at Highland Community College in Freeport, IL. He retired in 2018 and currently lives in Wisconsin.