Eugene "Bo" Norbert Stephens Jr.

Eugene Norbert “Bo” Stephens Jr. of Boulder, Colo., died peacefully at age 84 at the TRU Hospice Care Center in Longmont United Hospital on March 27, 2024. He was a devoted husband, loving father, and doting grandfather. His friends and family miss his sharp intellect and clever wit and believe those two traits helped him manage Lewy body dementia with grace, holding back the most severe ravages of its cruel progression until the very end.

Bo was born to Eugene Norbert Stephens Sr. and Frances Lorraine Allred Stephens in Valdosta, Ga. He spent most of his early childhood in idyllic Monticello, Fla., before moving to Pensacola, Fla., at age 8. He and his sister, Ann Rapp, never lost their love for their father’s hometown hamlet and often went back to visit.

Bo attended high school at Marion Military Institute in Alabama before enrolling in Emory University, where he was a pre-med student and a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity. His freshman year, he and some of his classmates took a road trip to Florida State University, where Bo was thrilled to learn that the female-to-male ratio was a whopping 10-to-1. He saw opportunity in those odds and eagerly transferred to FSU, despite his father’s objections to it as “a girl’s school.” Once there, he changed his major to political science in anticipation of attending law school.

After earning his B.A., he temporarily left the beautiful coeds behind and delighted his father by enrolling in the University of Florida School of Law. He graduated in 1966 and felt fortunate to be offered the opportunity to clerk for Judge G. Harrold Carswell, a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Before returning to Pensacola in 1969, he discovered his wanderlust while traveling abroad. Travel, he believed, was one of the best ways to educate himself, and he immersed himself in the culture, history and cuisines of Europe while making lifelong friends, learning new customs, and attempting to master new languages, despite the confounding impediment of having a Southern tongue.

He was eager to work in private practice and joined the law firm of Welles and Brown. Soon after that, he was elected to serve on the Board of Governors, Young Lawyers Section, representing the First Judicial Circuit of Florida. Early in his career, his strength as a litigation attorney was evident when he successfully plead a case before the Fifth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans. At that time, Bo was admitted to the Florida Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court.

When he opened his own office, he tried his hand at criminal law, family law, estate planning, and real estate law. Eventually settling on personal injury law, he was one of the first attorneys in the Pensacola Bay Area to become board certified. Moreover, he is still listed as a featured medical malpractice attorney on Lawyers.com.

In 1988, before Bo happily retired at age 56, he took on a case that involved a scuba diver who was paralyzed after suffering from decompression sickness. The third trial resulted in a $31 million plaintiff’s verdict. Bo worked the case for several years with Edward Holt before turning it over to Fredric G. Levin and Robert M. Loehr of Levin, Middlebrooks, Thomas, Mitchell, Green, Echsner, Proctor and Papantonio, Attorneys at Law.

The years Bo and his family spent living on the Gulf of Mexico were some of their happiest. Before they retired, he and his wife had already developed a love affair with hiking, kayaking, and skiing. They began hiking when their children were young, often taking them to enjoy the trails and rivers of the Carolinas. The children decided they preferred watching cartoons in the comfort of their air-conditioned, beach-front home, so Bo and wife Cynthia eventually gave them some reprieve and went without them on longer, steeper hikes in the Carolinas, the Western US, Canada, and South America.

On Bo’s 50th birthday, he decided to take on the Himalayas and flew to Nepal to hike the Annapurna Circuit. Not long before he retired, he and Cynthia hiked the Inca Trail in Peru. After retirement, they took a six-month trip to destinations in Europe and Asia, hiking across England on Wainwright’s Coast to Coast trail, returning to Nepal for a second trip on the Annapurna Circuit before flying to Thailand to enjoy the Orientale Hotel in Bangkok and the beaches of Phuket. From there, they flew to Jakarta and Bali, exploring Indonesian ruins and temples. In Ubud, they gathered with families each night near a small palace overlooking a pool of night-blooming lotus blossoms. That spot is where locals performed traditional Balinese dance dramas accompanied by gamelan music. 



Bo nurtured a wide range of passions, including reading, volunteering, windsurfing, running, and snow skiing. He was a tone-deaf music aficionado and consummate napper, and his hankering for tubs of ice cream, buckets of fried chicken and bowls of heavily buttered popcorn made his friends and family members envious of the trim physique he maintained throughout his life. Despite having had a debilitating ski accident in February 2002, he did not shy away from new challenges. He volunteered as an EMT for the Gold Hill Fire Department and served Boulder Community Hospital in pediatric audiology. Later, with a nudge from his friend, the former mayor Susan Osborne, he served three years as a legal advisor for Historic Boulder. He was also enlisted to help out at Historic Boulder’s annual fundraiser, Meet the Spirits. Bo played the role of Richard Henry Whitely (December 22, 1830~September 26, 1890) ,

an attorney from Georgia, Whitley and his family arrived in Boulder in 1877. Bo, who was born in Georgia, delighted in playing the role of the outstanding, influential barrister who was also quite scandalous. A former trial attorney and champion storyteller, Bo poses by Whitely’s tomb in the old Masonic cemetery surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd.

In his mid-70s, Bo solo hiked the 500-mile Camino de Santiago across northern Spain, a journey featured in the movie “The Way,” starring Martin Sheen. It was as transformative a journey for Bo as it was for the central character in the film. Bo’s wife joined him after the trek for a cultural exploration of the cities along the Camino, including San Sebastian, Leon, Bilbao, and Pamplona, with additional excursions to Barcelona and Figueres. The compelling Basque influences of the lovely towns encouraged the couple to continue to Saint Jean de Luz and Biarritz in France, where Cynthia’s former colleague Jack Batho lives. That journey turned out to be Bo’s last European adventure.

Bo’s sister, Ann Rapp, predeceased him. He is survived by his devoted wife, Cynthia Stephens of Boulder, Colo.; a daughter, Sloane Stephens Cox (Chris Cox) of Pensacola, Fla.; a son, Barry Earl “Bo” Dickson (Ann Meador) of Pensacola, Fla.; three grandchildren, Shelby Cox, Carson Cox and Abby Meador; one niece, Laura Yih (Thomas Yih) of Charlotte, N.C.; one nephew, Eric Rapp (Maurene Atwell) of Whitefish Bay, Wis.; four grandnieces, Madeline Yih, Anna Rapp (Alex Mackowski), Ashley Rapp, Manhattan Atwell; and one grandnephew, Oliver Yih (Sydney Yih).



Bo’s ashes will be scattered in his beloved hometown of Monticello, where his parents are buried; on a mountain in Boulder, where he resided for 24 years; and in the Gulf of Mexico off Santa Rosa Island, where he lived for 22 years. His family is planning celebrations of life in Pensacola, Fla from 4 to 6 p.m. on June 15 at the home of Christopher and Sloane Cox.

The Boulder Celebration of Life scheduled for September 22 at the home of Don and Beth Bowman has been POSTPONED. Cynthia will announce the new date once it has been determined.