I am sad to inform you that our classmate, Steven C. Kaufman, died on April 30, 2022. Steve and I never met at Churchill, but became enduring friends the first year of college. We joined the National Park Service as rangers the same day, he working at Great Falls, Va., and me at Great Falls, Md. Steve stayed with the Park Service for many years, becoming a ranger at Denali National Park (Mt. McKinley). He once asked me if I wanted to live with him in a log cabin on the north face of Mt. McKinley, heated only by a wood stove. I didn’t. Upon leaving the Park Service, Steve became an internationally known wildlife photographer, published in Nat Geo, Ranger Rick, and countless international periodicals. Many of the famous grizzlies with salmon photos you may have seen from the 1980s and 90s were Steve’s. He became an Alaskan bush pilot to reach the remote areas required for his photography, and also traveled to almost every continent for his work. He published at least two books, “Untamed Alaska”, and “Silent Chase: Submarines of the U.S. Navy”, both co-authored with his father, Rear Admiral Robert Y. Kaufman. He lived in Cantwell, Alaska, in the shadow of his beloved Denali. He leaves behind his dear wife, Alaskan artist Mary Bee Kaufman.

 

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