Stephen James Van Buskirk

In a surprisingly uncharacteristic display of quietude, Steve passed away peacefully on Thursday, November 7th, 2024. 

Surrounded by a mélange of strange and varied trinkets, books and artworks which exemplified his unique personality, he was able to have smiled his last smile, told his last off-color joke, and said goodbye to the many people he left behind. These include his brother Charlie, sister Julie, daughter Kate and son John, three grandchildren (plus one currently pending entry to the planet), among many others who were grateful, proud, or at least bemused to have known him. 

Having moved with his family from Wisconsin to Eugene, Oregon, he enjoyed his time kayaking, hiking, and swimming in the beauty of the Willamette Valley. He was very proud of his time in youth spent in competitive swimming, having won a state championship in breast stroke in high school which was often requisite content when conversing with him. His sister remembers that they spent a great deal of time at swim meets, and he once lost his swimsuit during a race and simply continued. 

As a teenager in the 60’s, he surprised his parents when he painted the ceiling with glow-in-the-dark paint in psychedelic designs. It was months until they discovered it when walking in with the lights off. Not content with the norm, he built his own fiberglass kayak, insisting that he had improved on the design of another, and enjoyed kayaking the McKenzie River in it.

Still in Eugene as a young adult, he lived above a radio station across a filmmaker working on ‘The Movie’ with The Merry Pranksters. He was able to meet many of the Pranksters, Ken Kesey, and go to a few Acid Test parties. An inveterate storyteller and near-hoarder, he did lament that he never got any of the material from the movie. He told a story of providing old pie tins to the Pranksters when once they had dinner but no dishes to eat off of, or cooking a turkey over a fire using mattress springs at a party, and was the proud recipient of the spatula that was reportedly used to cook breakfast on the bus Further. (The spatula has been honored with regular use by his daughter – as it is a very good spatula – although with Steve’s passing a Good Friend and Big Fan of the Grateful Dead will be please to know that she will be its new caretaker.)

From Eugene he moved to Northern California, and as an equipment engineer at the lumber mill in Samoa, he lived in the company town owned by Louisiana Pacific. He soon joined the volunteer fire department where he became the trainer, and became an EMT, and in those capacities he was well known in the small city and built many relationships. 

Upon closure of the mill, he moved to Albany Oregon where he built a few businesses, with Millibyte Inc being the longest-lived, working as an electrical engineer and programmer to design and install printed circuit boards to control industrial equipment in mills across Oregon. Those familiar with the Pacific Pride gas stations along I-5 may have encountered his work in the form of CardLock oil vending machines (no longer in use). 

In Albany, too, he met Daryl Meekins who accompanied us and brought his sons on hikes in the Oregon mountains, with a memorable 3 day trek on the Pacific Crest Trail – where Steve’s ashes will be spread on his final hike with this original group. 

His homes were always filled with interesting items which visitors were surprised and not infrequently pleased to discover. You may (and we did) find beautiful old car parts, a dark room set up, mannequin heads, multiple oscilloscopes, old cameras, a statue of a dentist clown, a miliary field operating table, multiple rubber chickens, or any number of other things he’d acquired simply because they were interesting, and he had space for them. (Editorial Note: He did not have the space for them)

He enjoyed working with the Albany Civic Theater, primarily building sets which included a cage from which Bat Boy could hang upside down, a fully rotating state for ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?’, and a platform that raise from under the state via pulleys for entrances and exits in ‘King Lear’. There he had his debut and only lead performance in ‘Fuddy Meers’. 

He enjoyed interesting and weird cars, and would fill space with many that were not often universally treasured, working regularly on old Volvos which were his favorite. This preference has been passed to his son, and to the youngest Meekins with his first car. 

Bearing a tall frame with inordinately tall legs, his bike which was augmented to allow for a ridiculously tall seat was often the subject of conjecture when parked in downtown Albany. Drawing questions from neighbors and passers-by so that it was something of a local oddity. In that sense, it was perfectly reflective of its owner. 

Those who had the opportunity to meet Steve were either treated or tortured, depending on their disposition and current schedule, to long and involved stories which could either intrigue, delight and instruct, or bear so little relevance as to be confusing. He once delayed his own trip to the emergency room while telling a friend about a movie he’d seen many years ago. He loved telling jokes, especially bawdy ones, either regardless of the situation or specifically in direct conflict with it. Regardless, all who met him would not soon forget. 

He was a frequent and excellent, if unorthodox, gift giver. He regularly picked up items at second-hand stores for people. They were thoughtful, like antique pen and ink drawings and strange or uniquely made mechanisms for Daryl, and interesting pictures and art for his kinds. They were also often bizarre and completely unexpected. He once bought a 3’ plastic snowman, painted weird clown makeup on it, and placed it in the dark hallway which led to his daughter’s apartment as a Christmas present. After seeing it and recognizing it as something goofy from Steve, she made the classic mistake of letting her guard down and was shocked that upon passing it malicious laughter came from it, as he’d recorded it and placed a motion sensor inside of it. 

He was fond of arguing in the way that people assured in their definite correctness can be, and once mentioned accurately that ‘Apparently I’m very good at pissing people off’. 

As his dementia progressed, he maintained his unique personality. When once his toilet clogged, he mentioned unprompted that wasn’t as if he ‘was stuffing oranges down there’, to which the reader will not be blamed for thinking he was definitely stuffing oranges down there. When told he should put on a shirt for a video call, he laughed and said ‘I don’t mind bad decorum’, which is as fitting a description of him as any that imagination could conjure. 

He often quoted that no one wants to be a dirty old man until they realize that the only alternative is to die young – a creed which he ended up living well.