William Stevens

Captain, U.S. Navy

William Stevens was born in 1932 in Buffalo, NY. He received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in the Class of 1955.

He began his naval career as a Naval Aviator and flew as a plane commander with VP-45 out of Bermuda. He received an M.S. degree in Meteorology and Oceanography at the U.S. Naval Post Graduate School in Monterey, CA. He researched the movement of hurricanes at the Naval Weather Research Facility at Norfolk, VA, was a forecaster aboard the carrier FDR, Professor of Meteorology at the Naval Post Graduate School, served as the Commanding Officer of the Fleet Weather Facility at Keflavik, Iceland, and was the Superintendent of the Aerography School and Executive Officer of the Naval Air Technical Training Center at Lakehurst, NJ, where he won the first Zumwalt Prize.

He gave weather forecasts and briefings to the CIA, NSA, White House, State Department and Pentagon. He ended his 26-year career at SACLANT in Norfolk, where he served as Director of Meteorology and Oceanography.

This lifelong enjoyer of dry martini gin cocktails (stirred, not shaken), Impressionist paintings, classical music, and biographical and historical books was a fiercely patriotic and passionate conservative who fought the good fight against political correctness and environmental distortions. He thought that his Naval Academy classmates were the finest men he had ever known.

His civic duties included volunteering for the Red Cross, Lee's Friends and his maintenance of the children's park at Colley and Raleigh Avenues. A lifelong fitness enthusiast, he enjoyed daily jogs and "take no prisoners" tennis matches. He was a well-recognized figure walking his beloved dogs in downtown Norfolk.

Captain William Stevens died in the arms of his only son and surrounded by his loving family on 28 February 2010 after a long battle with hepatitis C.

He is survived by his best friend, boon companion, and wife of 54 years, Julia Carney Stevens; three daughters, Ilene Stevens of Santa Fe, NM; Lisa Strait of Chattanooga, TN; and Lynn Shepherd of Virginia Beach, VA; and his only son, William E. Stevens of Charlotte, NC. Survivors also include an older brother, Henry, and his wife Joanne; his brother- in-law, James Carney; four grandchildren, Catherine and Anne Harden Watjen and Clay and Will Shepherd; two sons-in-law, Timothy Strait and Douglas Shepherd; a score of cousins and a host of friends. All will remember his legacy, his love of racy jokes and hopefully, some of the better ones while forgiving the all too many groaners.

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