Steve Meyer

John Stephen Meyer
07 Jan 1951 - 12 Mar 2020

Clubs & Associations

Boots in Squares
Foggy City Dancers
Western Star Dancers
Windmill Twirlers

Obituary

I died a rather happy man on March 12, 2020 in Palm Springs, CA of complications of glioblastoma, that nasty brain cancer you may have heard about. I was one of the lucky ones in that when I was diagnosed in August 2014 I was told I had 14-18 months to live. At the time of my death I was in month 67.

I was born January 7, 1951 as John Stephen Meyer on a snowy morning in Evansville, IN to June Fickas Meyer and Herman G Meyer, both of whom have predeceased me. Others who predeceased me are my brother Gery Meyer and Tony Dunleavy, the man of my life with whom I was blessed to spend 30 years together before he died in 2008. I am survived by my three sisters Millicent Jones of Phoenix, AZ, Donna McFetridge (David) of Cloverdale, CA, and Gayle Collins (Don) of Evansville, IN and my loving boyfriend, Tom Kelly of Cathedral City, CA.

I graduated from Memorial High School in 1969 and for two years I attended the Indiana State University regional campus which is now the University of Southern Indiana. At that time an opportunity to move to California presented itself and I grabbed that brass ring and ran with it, never looking back. I first landed in Palo Alto, CA south of San Francisco and moved about the San Francisco peninsula several times before Tony and I moved to San Franciso a couple months after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which interrupted the World Series. There I stayed until I moved to Palm Springs, CA in 2013. Curiously, while California is often considered the "earthquake center" in the US, and I've been through some doozies, the first earthquake I experienced was the 1968 New Madrid earthquake in Evansville, IN.

I was fortunate to be hired by Hewlett-Packard Company within a year of arriving in California and I enjoyed a 30 year career with H-P before accepting a generous "enhanced" early retirement package in 2002. I stayed retired for a couple years and then worked at a non profit for a year. That was certainly an eye-opener for me. Then I worked for five years in the office of an immunogenetics laboratory at the University of California-San Francisco. The lab performed genetic and DNA testing for patients needing organ and bone marrow transplants. That was some of the most fascinating work I've ever done.

At my request, no services will be held.^[1]

Remembrances

Boots in Squares member Steve Meyer passed away on March 12th following a five-year struggle with glioblastoma (brain cancer).
Steve learned to square dance with Western Star Dancers and joined Boots in Squares when he moved to Palm Springs from the Bay Area in 2012. BIS members may remember him as Chair of Swing Thru the Palms in 2014.
Square dancing brought him great joy and valuable lifelong friendships.