Stephen James Easter

Steve was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1947 to George H. Easter, an Episcopal priest, and Ruth Winifred Eaton Easter, a professional singer and music teacher. Clergy families tend to move around a lot, and Steve and his younger siblings Kate and John grew up in Buffalo and Philadelphia and then Canterbury, England, where Steve was the first American to sing as a boy chorister (and carry the Archbishop of Canterbury’s ceremonial train) at Canterbury Cathedral Choir School. After a year in Canterbury, the family returned to Buffalo for a year before heading back to England, where Steve’s father studied for a doctorate in Christian ethics at Oxford University. Steve attended the Magdalen College Campus School on the Oxford University campus, where C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were dons. Steve often told the story of caroling at what turned out to be Tolkien’s home, where the great man invited the carolers in from the cold and awed them by heating a sword red-hot in the fireplace before plunging it into a cauldron of cider, making a dramatic hissing sound and sending clouds of steam circling round the ceiling. Tolkien poured the steaming cider into mugs and distributed them to the boys; that mug of hot cider, and its memory, warmed Steve for all his days.

He attended St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, on a scholarship, and fondly remembered chapel sings and frozen mornings playing hockey on the pond. He then headed to Oberlin College in Ohio, where he earned a degree in Government and earned his stripes as a touring musician, singing great choral works under the baton of Robert Fountain, Aaron Copland and others. He also served in leadership for his housing cooperative at Oberlin, foreshadowing his lifetime of volunteer service.

After college, Steve moved to the Adirondacks to be nearer his family, and he helped to rehabilitate a Great Camp that George and Ruth had purchased from Paul Smiths College, which had bought it in a tax sale. Steve helped design and build a boathouse, mastered home repair, and discovered a love for temperamental wooden boats of all varieties: he became a skillful and decorated racing skipper for the 32-foot wooden Idem sailboat they’d bought from a neighbor, and he also acquired and restored a decrepit Chris-Craft motor launch that he named Galadriel. He earned his 46er badge climbing the High Peaks and spent many happy hours paddling all around the Adirondacks. He worked as a reporter for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise in Saranac Lake, but he also spent summers mentoring young boys as a counselor at Camp Kabeyun on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire and working at the Camelot Home for Delinquent Boys in Lake Placid. At Camelot he came to believe that the boys were “pretty good kids, who’d been horribly failed by their parents and the legal system.” It was this revelation that led to his decision to attend law school, thinking that he could perhaps help build a legal system that did more to help kids grow into capable, contributing adults.

Law became a lifelong passion for him, and he strove to make the legal system as just, fair and impartial as possible. He earned his law degree at Albany Law School and promptly moved to Potsdam to start working for Bill Krebs at the Krebs Law Firm. A few years later, he opened his own practice where he helped many people buy homes, plan their estates, settle divorces and start businesses. One of his real passions was co-founding and serving in the law guardian program (now the “Attorney for the Child” program) which provided children with free attorneys to represent their best interests during custody battles and other family disruptions and ensure that their voices were heard throughout the process.

Steve took a part-time job in 1985 working as principal law clerk in the St. Lawrence County Court under Judge Eugene Nicandri, where he researched case law, drafted opinions and supported the judge in operating the court. In 1996, the Office of Court Administration made those positions full-time everywhere in New York, and Steve made the tough decision to close his private practice so he could continue working in the courts. When Judge Nicandri retired, Steve stayed on, working under Judges Kathleen Martin Rogers and Jerome Richards. They worked together until Steve retired in 2015. Steve was known in the court system for mentoring younger attorneys, developing a training program to support town justices, teaching other attorneys at conferences and helping to pioneer the use of “drug court”, a criminal diversion program rooted in addiction science that offers treatment and wraparound support to help break the cycle of drug abuse and criminality. In his long career with the law, there are many echoes of Steve’s first call to legal advocacy: to help the system do better for all the people it serves.

Volunteer service mattered to Steve in every aspect of his life. He volunteered at his son’s schools as a chaperone, host, volunteer driver, handyman and more. He sang in the choir of Trinity Episcopal Church in Potsdam and served on its vestry for decades, including several terms as Warden; he also shouldered the task of maintaining and winding the ancient mechanical clock inside the clock tower. Those who’ve climbed the ice-crusted iron pipe ladder in a howling winter gale know that this is no small responsibility! Steve spent many years serving on the Community Services Board for St. Lawrence County, sometimes as chair. He also co-founded the Potsdam Community Chorus and helped to establish it as a nonprofit organization; he sang with the group for many years. He was an early board member of the Potsdam Food Co-op, which continues to serve the community 53 years later. He served on many other boards, including NYSARC, North Country Legal Services (now Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York), the St. Lawrence County Bar Association and the Canton-Potsdam Hospital Foundation. He crafted and maintained innumerable geocaches throughout New York, helping people to discover the wilderness and he led many hikes and paddling trips so others could join him in appreciating the beauty of the earth we share.

Steve’s largest volunteer commitment was to Reachout of St. Lawrence County, the nonprofit crisis and suicide hotline cofounded by his wife, Karen. Steve provided invaluable technical and legal expertise on setting up a nonprofit and inventing an operating structure for what was, at the time, a totally new form of organization. He served on Reachout’s board in the early years, trained many volunteers on legal issues related to hotline work, jumped into service as Reachout’s middle-of-the-night emergency plumber for decades and baked untold thousands of chocolate-peanut-butter-chip cookies for nearly a half-century of Reachout training classes. His role at Reachout, though usually unofficial, was essential; we couldn’t have done it without him.

After retirement, Steve slowed down, facing a combination of health challenges and neurocognitive decline. He remained passionate about many things: his family, especially his grandson; justice in the world, both locally and farther afield; beautiful music in all forms; the preservation of green and wild spaces; the sublime delights of a good ice cream cone. He read widely, studied many languages, traveled the world, knew the plot of every British murder mystery and could still sing all of Handel’s Messiah from memory. We are grateful that he’s now free of pain, and we miss him greatly.

Calling hours will be held on Saturday, July 12, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Donaldson-Seymour Funeral Home, Cedar St., Potsdam. The memorial service will be held on Sunday, July 13, at 1 p.m. at Trinity Episcopal Church, Fall Island, Potsdam. After the service, please join us for an Italian buffet at Sergi’s restaurant, Market St., Potsdam. Please dress in comfortable, festive clothing, whatever that means for you and please refrain from wearing fragrances. Steve will be buried at Bayside Cemetery, Potsdam, later this summer. Steve’s family would like to offer their thanks to the Potsdam Rescue Squad, Potsdam Volunteer Fire Department and the many other first responders who supported Steve in his last moments.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Steve’s memory are gratefully welcomed at Dad Guild of Vermont, PO Box 3155, Burlington VT 05401 (a support and advocacy group for fathers); Grace House, PO Box 637, Canton NY 13617 (the only recovery home for women addicts in our area); or Trinity Episcopal Church, 8 Maple Street, Potsdam NY 13676. Steve would have added: please do a kindness for someone,and do it today.

Friends are encouraged to share memories and offer condolences online at donaldsonseymour.com.