Roger Stephenson

Roger Stephenson

August 27, 1937 - June 19, 2015

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Obituary

Roger Deane Stephenson lost his long struggle against lung cancer on June 19, 2015 at 5:00 a.m. at Southwest Heath Center in Platteville. He was born 77 years ago on August 27, 1937, in Kansas City, Missouri. He attended Our Saviour's Lutheran Church and its parochial school in Kansas City, Kansas until he transferred to Rosedale High School, graduating in 1956. His parents owned a radio and television repair shop in Kansas City, Kansas, and Roger ran service calls for them all during his teen years. He married Gloria Sue Calahan on September 5, 1957, and the two of them finished college together, taking their graduate work at The University of Missouri at Columbia.
Roger Stephenson holds a Masters degree in Physical Science from the University of Missouri at Columbia. He taught physics, chemistry and mathematics at several colleges,including The University of Wsconsin at Platteville, and high schools including The Grammar School in Great Britain.
Roger founded P.A. R. Inc. and, later, The RDSoftware Co. These firms produced, respectively, educational appartautus and Quantest testmaking software. He held patents on six devices including a Continuously Variable Transmission, and he was granted two trademarks.
Later, as an industrial software engineer, he led the team that wrote the software that drove the perfomance testing of Rockwell International's TCAS, the Collision Avoidance device found on most commercial airliners.
Previous publications include newsletters, technical manuals, and articles in The Physics Teacher Magazine and The American Journal of Physics. One of these articles became part of The Physics of Sports published by Springer-Verlag.
He most recently tutored high school students and adults in mathematics, physics and computing for The Platteville Area Literacy Council Inc. which he founded with his wife, Gloria. He said he loved to summer on Lake Superior in Ontario and head south to winter in Platteville Wisconsin.
Roger leaves behind his wife, Gloria, of 58 years, and two sons, Trevor John Stephenson (Rose) of Madison, Wisconsin, and Dyne Gabriel Stephenson (Roberta Gibbons) of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He also leaves three grandchildren: Emily Allegra Stephenson of Madison and Nations Tucker Stephenson and Henry Louis Stephenson both of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Roger was a life-long learner and especially loved the subjects of science, nature. and music. He was a self-taught piano player who learned, remembered, and played hundreds of songs by ear. He also had been studying The Holy Bible for several recent years with elders of the Belmont Kingdom Hall congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. Roger's entire character was informed by his creativity and sense of humor. He will be very much missed by his family and a large number of friends. He often claimed to be, "the luckiest duck on the face of the pond", even in failing health.
On Saturday, July 11, 2015 the visitation will be from 10:00 a.m. -12:00 p.m. with the memorial service beginning at 12:00 p.m., all at the Melby Funeral Home & Crematory, Platteville. The family requests no food be brought to the funeral home. Memorials may be made to the Roger Stephenson Memorial Fund. Online condolences may be made at www.melbyfh.com.

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TN
Tom Nordgren
Other •
Dear Gloria, I'm really saddened by this news - you have had to bear way more health burdens than you deserve! Yourself and Roger made us feel at home right from our first visit to Platteville, and I regret that there wasn't the time or space to become even closer friends later, when we lived just two doors down. I'll always be thankful for the math coaching Roger gave my daughter, and for the numerous conversations he and I had about summering on Superior, learning the keyboard, and just being a dad. He was a gentle, wise and witty guy - it's Roger and people like him (and yourself!) who hold up the Earth, even now. Peace and Blessings to you all! Tom
CS
Charles Sundin
Other •
Roger was a colleague on the second floor of Ottensman Hall at UW-P. I always enjoyed talking with him about everything. Roger had a neat sense of humor and a serious interest in pedagogy. I will always remember when Roger moved to town a number of faculty members volunteered to help him unload his truck. Little did we know that the truck contained very heavy machine tools that he used to create the various educational apparatus he was inventing. And all of the machine tools went to the basement! After Roger left UW-P it was always a joy to meet Roger and Gloria at various university functions.
PJ
Pat Jinkins
Other •
Sorry to hear this news. Roger was always a character when we all worked at Insight. I'll always remember his warning -- after the fact -- 'Pat, you should know better than to let the smoke out of your computer. They NEVER work after that." I trust he'll be learning a LOT in his new assignment.
CN
Chetna Narayan
Other •
My condolences, Gloria. My thoughts are with you.
MH
Mary Kemps & Tom Holland
Other •
Tom & I were very sorry to hear about Roger's passing. While we were working at Insight with Roger, his sense of humor was greatly appreciated. Tom once told Roger he would never pull a joke on him. Roger asked why, and Tom told him "Because if I did, at some point I would find myself standing on Main St. in Platteville with my pants around my ankles, and it would seem like a good idea." Roger took this as the high praise it was meant to be.
JM
Jennifer Marvin
Other •
Gloria, We just learned of Roger's passing. We are so sorry as this was a loss to many people. It is clear to me by reading about his life that you have both touched many lives, including ours, so kindly donating to our trip to see my mom when she had her heart attack and subsequent quadruple bypass. I hope that you will have a chance to come back to Kansas City and see us all. Just remember that you're not alone, we are keeping you and your family in our hearts, minds, and prayers. Love, Jennifer Marvin, Leah Hudson, Lindsay Haskins, Kara Haskins (Barbara Marvin's daughter and grandbabies)

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