September 11, 2009

Stephen Crawford Loveless ’72 Faculty and Staff Lounge

More than twenty members of the Loveless clan descended on campus in the fall of 2008 to dedicate the Stephen Crawford Loveless ’72 Faculty and Staff Lounge in Howard Hall.

The Loveless family has strong ties to Lewis & Clark. It may have started with Don Balmer, Lewis & Clark professor emeritus, who attended the University of Washington with his future wife, Betty, and her friend, Barbara Crawford Loveless. Don urged Barbara’s children to consider Lewis & Clark. Stephen ’72 and his sister, LeeAnn, came to the College in the late ‘60s. 

LeeAnn returned from the College’s overseas program with a husband. Their daughter, Sara Tesorieri, graduated from LC in 1998. Stephen met his wife, Rebecca ‘72, on an overseas trip to Scotland led by Dr. Balmer. Pictures from this overseas program are included in art work on the main floor of the Howard Hall.

Much of the “Loveless Clan” resides north of Seattle and enjoys summers at their property on Decatur Island, part of the San Juan Islands in Washington. In 1992, Stephen died in an accident while working on the property. 

To commemorate the family’s connection with Lewis & Clark and to remember Stephen, his parents, Barbara and Rod Loveless, made a gift to the College. Rebecca chose the lounge [located in Howard Hall] to be named for Stephen because “Stephen loved to rest and relax.” A hard worker who was “simultaneously brilliant and lazy,” Rebecca confessed that Stephen wrote the bulk of his doctoral thesis in the bathtub.

More than twenty members of the Loveless Clan descended on campus in the fall of 2008 to dedicate the lounge. Don and Betty Balmer welcomed the group, and many family members shared memories of Stephen. 

Rebecca has loaned the College framed, Polaroid transfers of the other place where the Loveless family has strong ties: Decatur Island. While Stephen is not pictured in the photographs, his family is—captured relaxing and enjoying themselves – just as visitors of the Stephen Crawford Loveless ’72 Faculty and Staff Lounge should relax and enjoy themselves in this space.

Submitted by Sharon Bosserman-Benson, director of planned giving.