Personal Interests

Steve enjoys a number of extra-curricular activities. He actively participates in the Eastside Christian Church, Las Vegas, singing in the choir and facilitating an adult class. Singing in the choir ended a few years ago, joining several other musical interests on the sidelines. He used to play cornet since the age of 11, although the cornet has gathered more dust than play since moving to Las Vegas. Until becoming department chair, he played in a Community Orchestra in Connecticut. Finding time to practice is the effective constraint. He also enjoys listening to music with tastes that include classical, jazz, rock, country, and almost any style. Steve's reading interests have a heavy component of professional material, but he also enjoys pleasure reading.

Aside from the daily exercise routine on Wii Fitness software, Steve’s main physical activity is tennis, a game that he has played since he was 13. He tries to schedule a weekly match of singles, although playing in the summer in Las Vegas presents significant barriers. Moreover, due to unforeseen circumstances of finding partners, his tennis racquets are also gathering dust near the gym bag in the closet at home. To date, he has only ventured onto the golf courses in Las Vegas one time. During the summer months in Connecticut, an occasional trip to the golf course broke the stress of being a department head. His game exhibits significant rust, although he still can get a par or two, if lucky, on his outings to the links.

Steve’s spouse, Totie, and his daughter, Alex, both enjoy traveling. Steve comes along for the ride. And it has been an interesting ride that has included several trips to visit Totie’s family in the Philippines. Other non-business trips have taken the family to Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Columbia, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monte Carlo, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Northern Cyprus, Norway, Peru, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, South Africa, Southern Cyprus, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe. The trips to the Middle East occurred while Totie’s father worked in Saudi Arabia, first for the United Nations and then for the Saudi Arabian government. The three trips to China began with a day trip in 1982 to Shen Zhen followed by another day trip in 1995 to Guang Zhou and finally a week’s trip to Beijing and Shanghai in 2007. Before getting married, Steve’s only foreign experience beyond Canada was a trip to Brazil.

Las Vegas offers many different possibilities for family activities. Steve and Totie dine out about once a week and the choices of good restaurants match, and usually beat, the opportunities in major international cities. Vegas also offers numerous live shows, such as Oh and the six other Cirque du Soleil shows in Vegas, Celine Dion (since retired from Vegas), the Blue Man Group, and so on. Finally, for many years, the Economics Department sponsored a fundraiser for undergraduate scholarships at a putting golf course each October. That course at Angel Park does not use carpet, windmills, or other extraneous equipment. Rather, the course uses regular greens grass with holes ranging from 90 to over 400 feet, with sand traps and water hazards. Moreover, the undulations of the greens proves challenging for accomplished golfers (putters). Unfortunately, the Great Recession caused Angel park to remove 9 holes. So the event continues, but now at a bowling establishment in one of the casinos.