Steve J. Hennessy, 50, of Rock Springs, formerly of Williston, N.D., passed away Friday morning, Sept. 17, 2004, in Rock Springs at his home.

Steven was born in Minot, N.D., raised in Williston and graduated from Williston High School in 1973. He moved to Rock Springs, the week following his graduation with $50 in his pocket and a grocery bag full of Levis to take a job as a catskinner and mechanic for Geck Seismograph.

He was subsequently offered a job as mechanic for Champlin Petroleum as a result of rescuing a woman and child from drowning in Flaming Gorge Reservoir.

Steve was promoted through the ranks despite oil field reductions in force to a position of construction superintendent for the successor company Union Pacific Resources and its successor, Anadarko Petroleum.

During the last few years, he became the chief warehouseman for Anadarko-Rock Springs/Brady Plant as a result of increasing disability, first thought to be a cardiac condition, then correctly diagnosed at Mayo Clinic December 2002 with interstitial pneumonitis (progressive crystallization of the lungs) inherent secondary to cumulative occupational exposures to chemicals.

Retired at full disability, Steve began day trading in the stock market in a volume sufficient to trigger an IRS inquiry because he was setting the share price in the selected energy stocks he had chosen. The inquiry was completely resolved in his favor when it was determined that there was no insider trading involved.

Steve met Barbie Stassinos, and they married in November 1993. He and Barbie raised their two sons, Riley and Chris Hamm, to completion of high school and later vo-ed college in Phoenix to see them as grown men and productive taxpayers in their chosen field.

Steve's proudest accomplishment was teaching his sons to hunt and fish and love wild places as he did. He was a crack shot and had taken several dozen elk between South Pass and Clay Basin. He prided himself on always butchering his own kill, start to finish.

He hunted geese in Canada. He fly fished for Alaska salmon and head-to-head out-fished one of the owners of Thomas & Thomas Rod Co.

His first passion of hunting led him to an appreciation of fur trade history at the confluence and he was an original contributor to the Fort Union reconstruction and the Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center and Fort Buford barracks reconstruction.

He is to be sorely missed by all who spent time in the field with him, as well as all his friends and relatives back in civilization.

Steve leaves behind his wife Barbie Hennessy of Rock Springs; two sons, Riley Hamm of Casper and Christopher Hamm of Rock Springs; his parents, Jerome and Anna Lucille Hennessy of Williston; two brothers, Greg W. (Shelly) Hennessy and Michael (Jackie) Hennessy, all of Williston; two sisters, Mary Ann (Sam) Johnson of Devils Lake, N.D., and Melissa (Mike) Knudsen of Williston; several aunts and uncles including Duane (Fern) Sorboen and Genevieve Behrenfeld; several cousins including Mike Dikemper of Rock Springs; his brothers-in-laws and sisters-in-law, Bob and Debbie White, Dave and Theresa Piaia, Jim Stassinos, Ron and Kori Stassinos, Chris and Teya Stassinos, Brian and Jan Levitt, Toni Stassinos, Jay and Mary Whitfield, and John Stassinos, all of Rock Springs.

He was preceded in death by his paternal and maternal grandparents; his father-in-law and mother-in-law, Harry and Evelyn Stassinos; and several uncles and aunts.

A Mass was held at 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Williston. 

Memorials may be made in Steve's memory to Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation or Ducks Unlimited c/o P.O. Box 756, Williston, ND 58802.

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