Steven was born on May 18, 1949 in Billings, MT as the first child of parents Dr. Richard Baird Bridenbaugh and Rosemary Amelia Bridenbaugh. He developed impressive artistic, musical, and academic abilities from a young age that inspired admiration from family, friends, teachers and strangers alike. He attended preparatory school in Kent, CT and completed a major in English at the University of Montana. After an apprenticeship constructing models with The Architectural Design Group in Billings, he briefly taught English on the Crow Indian Reservation in Lodge Grass, MT and otherwise was employed as a carpenter or maintenance worker. He resided in both Denver, CO and Ketchum, ID before moving to Arcata and eventually Eureka. He was a devoted collector of a myriad of tools, used books and musical instruments. He loved the outdoors, growing herbs, riding his bike, deep conversations and raising his sons. Steven became increasingly skilled with computers as the technology emerged and taught himself several programming languages from books he had in his library. Using HTML, he created one of the first live websites in Humboldt County, CA for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. He also coded the websites for his brothers standup paddleboard business in CO and his sisters acupuncture business AZ, both of which received customer praise. Steven was a skilled artist in a wide variety of media including writing (of note is a prescient and ahead-of-its-time short story titled ‘The Day the World Turned Into Plastic,’ circa 1970s), poems, sculptures, drawings, paintings, and computer generated images. Steven developed challenges with mental illness as a young adult that continued throughout his life, however he learned to suppress his symptoms to the extent that he did not take pharmaceutical medications. He had a philosophy of kindness, and compassion for people who were in financial or mental distress and would sometimes offer shelter in his home. When his generosity occasionally led to the loss of his material possessions, he felt they were needed by others more than himself. On the evening of Thanksgiving day, November 23, 2022 Steven passed from lung cancer, leaving a void for many in the community who loved him and enjoyed his many talents. Steven is survived by former wives Rita of Billings, MT and Molly of Eureka, CA, sons Benjamin, Andrew, and Mark, sister Ahna of Sedona, AZ, and brother John of Arcata, CA.

CONTACT: bridenbaugha@rocketmail.com