Dean Duane Stephen

Dean was born on October 10th, 1935 in Joes, Colorado to Earl and Ella Stephen. He was the youngest son and had six siblings.

He is survived by his wife Eileen, sons Greg and Geoff, grandchildren Erin, Sean, Danny, Tyler and Shelby and seven great grandchildren.

He was predeceased by his siblings, his grandson Ryan, and a number of other family and friends, many of whom he will be laid to rest nearby.

Before he was ten years old his family moved to Cabin Creek near Deer Trail, CO where he met Eileen Koepke. They were to fall in love and became married in July of 1953. They moved to Boulder to attend the University of Colorado where they both received degrees, Dean’s was in Mechanical Engineering. He had worked at the gas station in Cabin Creek where he had been able to develop his natural mechanical abilities repairing cars. He used these skills to put himself through college. Dean worked for several aerospace companies including the Martin Company which later became Martin Marietta. He spent a few years in California, then returned to Colorado and bought a home in Columbine Hills near Chatfield reservoir. He worked on several defense projects and Skylab, the first US space station. He performed well and was moved into positions more involved in management and attended many meetings in other states. He was an avid outdoorsman in his youth and spent many hours with his family jeeping, fishing, and camping. He also took several trips to Canada to hunt moose where he was successful perhaps more times than his family would have preferred. Dean and Eileen bought land near Sedalia, CO and they built their own home. He also farmed some of Eileen’s family farm ground in Deer Trail for many years. He became tired of the traveling with his engineering job and along with another former Martin coworker he bought and managed a John Deere farm equipment dealership in Franktown, CO. He and Eileen became the sole owners in a year or two and he operated that business for 30 years. Towards the end of the time in the business Dean and Eileen were able to travel quite a bit in their motorhome to the southwest where Dean became very interested in geology and they would spend time searching in the desert for unique rocks and attending rock shows. Always using his abilities and training, Dean bought, modified and built processing machines to polish, cut and create spheres from rocks. He was a very determined and thorough leader who could take charge of any situation. He could be intense with those he thought enough of to teach, but it was important to him to ensure understanding and pass along whatever knowledge he could to those he cared about. Dean was always thinking about providing for his family and tried to do what he thought was in their best interest to accomplish that.

He had a mischievous, flirtatious, fun side and with his quick wit would quickly win people over. Even up to just a few days prior to his departure, he would always look to offer a chair and some food or drink to visitors. Those who were fortunate enough to have been taught by him will carry those lessons throughout their life and pass them along in turn. He was loved and will be missed and remembered by many.

There will be a graveside service at the Evergreen cemetery in Deer Trail, CO on Friday June 4th, 2021 at 11:00 am.