Richard E. Stevens

Richard Edward Stevens was born on March 5th, 1931 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Leeland J. Stevens and Mathilda (Cl ter) Stevens. He was baptized and confirmed in the Lutheran church where he worshiped and bore witness his entire life. While a child his family moved between Minnesota and California as his father pursued work in the construction trades, primarily as a plasterer. In fact, his father built several of the houses that Richard grew up in. Eventually the family settled in Contra Costa county, California, east of San Francisco where he attended high school. After graduating from high school, Richard went to Concordia Teacher's College in Seward, Nebraska where he received his bachelor's degree. His first teaching position was at Trinity Lutheran Church and School in Amarillo, Texas. It was there that he met Betty Jean Schuette and they were married on August 9th, 1953. In March of 1955 he was inducted into the U.S. Army where he served honorably until he was discharged in January of 1957. He returned to the University of Colorado, Boulder to complete his master's degree. His daughter Cynthia was born in June of 1955 while he was still serving in the Army, and son Mark was born shortly after in 1958. After receiving his master's degree in Geography from UC Boulder, he attended the University of Kansas in Lawrence where he completed his PhD in Geography in 1961. He spent two years on faculty at Wayne State College in Wayne, Nebraska, before returning to the University of Colorado in 1963 where Richard was the first geographer hired to teach and establish a program at the Denver Center. Just two years later he was appointed as the Chair of the Division of Natural and Physical Sciences. In 1967 he received a Fulbright grant and went to the University of Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland in Roma, Lesotho, Africa for a year to teach, do research and work with the local population to improve their subsistence farming and agricultural techniques. From 1975 to 1980 the University of Colorado established ties with the Semester at Sea academic program. During that time Richard and his wife Betty circumnavigated the world on three separate semester-long cruises where Richard taught and was the Administrative Dean and Betty served as one of the ship's nurses. Richard retired in 1996 as a full Professor having spent 17 of his 33 years at UC Denver as a Division or Department Chair or Dean. Even after retirement he felt compelled to share his knowledge and love of teaching when he took Betty with him to China while he taught for a semester at the University of Beijing.By virtue of his experience as a child helping his father build the houses they eventually lived in, Richard became an accomplished craftsman who was adept at surveying, general construction, electrical wiring, plumbing, and finish carpentry. He built and lived in two houses in the Boulder/Longmont area and helped to build two Lutheran churches: Mount Hope in Boulder and Divine Savior near Niwot. You could see Richard's innate sense of design and engineering expertise in everything he built, from the terraces and landscaping around his house to the quality and detail in his custom cabinetry. Another common thread throughout his career and life was his love of physical and regional geography, but more specifically agriculture. Although he taught a variety of courses, his favorite was on Agriculture and Food Production, where he educated students on the theory and practice of growing and distributing food. Richard also put his extensive knowledge of agriculture and farming to use by co-founding the Boulder Farmer's Market in 1987, the largest and most recognized farmer's market in Colorado. He and Betty have a farm in Longmont and the vegetables they harvested there were offered at the Boulder Farmers Market for over two decades. Many of the long-time customers they attracted with their naturally grown crops became ˜family'. The day he fell and was injured, he was in the garden he loved “ picking tomat s.Richard is survived by Betty, his wife of 65 years, his sister Marlene (Stevens) Wyneken, daughter Cynthia, son Mark and his grandchildren, Sarah Stevens, Alexander Stevens, Jonathan Lanning, Amelie (Lanning) Heyse, as well as several nieces and nephews. He was pre-deceased by both parents and his brother Leland Stevens.Memorial contributions may be made to Messiah Lutheran Church in support of the Lutheran Hour.