Rob Steffens, Huntsville, Texas

[JohnRich 4]

Rob Steffens passed-away April 11, 2012 at 6:20 AM, from liver cancer.

Rob Steffens used to jump at the Aggies Over Texas (AOT) drop zone in Bryan, Texas, and considered that his home DZ. Rob made his first jump there at Coulter Field, with jumpmasters John and Anne Yonke. He also jumped at the old Skydive Houston location in Waller, Texas.

Much of this information comes from Kay Choate, a good friend of Rob's, along with her husband John Choate.

Rob worked a simple job driving a tractor cutting grass for the city of Huntsville, and retired from that job. But he was far from a simple man. He lived a frugal life and amassed a comfortable nest egg on his paychecks. Several years ago the Choates directed him to an investment advisor to better care for his savings, to do something with it other than just buy certificates of deposit for minimal interest. He paid cash for his house.

One of the reasons he loved his job is because he loved snakes, and driving a tractor he would stir up a lot of them in the tall grass, and he would stop and play with them. He was once bitten by a copperhead and I don’t think he even went to the ER. He also loved cats. One of his cats brought a coral snake to the house and the snake nicked him on the finger when he was trying to take it away from the cat. He did go to the ER with that but they did not even admit him over night - it made him sick but that was about it.

He loved to go to yard sales and estate sales and found all kinds of interesting things like cannon balls, and he collected antique shaving straight razors. He always hoped to find some old forgotten treasure that would make him a millionare. Rob once gave me a small "signal" device that he found at a yard sale, because he knew I liked guns. This gizmo is a small package about two inches square that clips to a railroad track, and when a train runs over it it gives off a loud bang. This signal would warn repairmen down the line that a train was approaching, so they could clear the tracks for the oncoming train. I've still got that gizmo.

Rob spent many, many hours with John Choate when he was sick in the later stages of his own cancer, giving John's wife, Kay a break and time to go to work. Rob was with John one day when John stopped breathing. Rob did CPR and kept John alive until the ambulance arrived to take John to the hospital. This gave John several more months of life to live, before he eventually succumbed.

Rob did not drink alcohol, but did drink non-alcoholic beer. And he loved super strong double espresso type coffee.

He never really learned to pack his parachute or was never good at it and would much prefer to pay a pretty girl to pack it for him.

Rob was always thinking in unique ways.

He told Kay once that he thought it would be cool to get a top hat, long tail tuxedo, cane, etc. and attend the opera. She seems to remember that the 2nd part of the story would be to act all uppity, and then pull some kind of stunt in the middle of a group of fancy people.

Rob always had odd ideas for unusual, yet feasible skydives. He wanted to roll off the back of a tailgate aircraft in a wheelchair. Another crazy idea I remember was to do a jump in the eye of a hurricane. The plan would be to ride out the first wall of storm in the hanger, and while the calm eye passed overhead, to wheel out the plane, board it, take off and do a quick hop 'n pop. The jumpers and plane would then land quickly, hurry back to the hanger, all in time to ride out the trailing wall of storm which was to follow. Crazy, but feasible! I think you could find skydivers to do it, but I don't know about a willing pilot.

And his unusual thinking even extended to his terminal illness. He didn't want to be buried in the ground or cremated like most people. He is donating his body to science. And he's not even doing that in the usual manner, for dissection by medical students. Rob wants his body to rot away on a "body farm" to benefit forensic science. He described his pending death not as something sad, but as just another of life's adventures, and something to be happy about.

You can see him talking about that in this TV interview:
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news%2Flocal&id=8571213

While Rob's body will soon be decomposing in the woods, his spirit will live on in all of us who knew him. Thanks for being unique, Rob.

Photos:
1) Rob in skydiving gear.
2) Rob from a couple of months ago.
3) Rob (left) with friend John Choate (right) in 2002.

[freakyrat 1]

May Rob Rest In Peace and may God give comfort to his family and friends.

Thanks for posting this John. I remember Rob quite well from Skydive Houston and I think I even made a jump or two with him.

[AggieDave 6]

Rob always was good for an interesting conversation when he would come out to SD Aggieland. That last picture of Rob with John really made me miss both of them.

Rob's old Javelin lives on, having sold it to low time local jumper. He was sad to see it go, but he had said that he knew he couldn't skydive anymore. He was happy to see it go to someone who loved to jump and put it to good use.

Blue Skies Rob!

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[chuckakers 370]

Blues skies, Rob!

Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

[efs4ever 3]

Wow, BSBD! I've jumped with him many times over the years, during my infrequent trips to Bryan. He goes way back.

Russell M. Webb D 7014
Attorney at Law
713 385 5676
https://www.tdcparole.com