Steve Long told us the story of his long life, careers and accomplishments at Rotary.  Some important early dates were his birth in 1939 and life in Ceres, CA, graduation from high school in 1957 and marriage on the Summer Solstice (June 21) in 1959 (60 years ago!).  Steve was active at school with band, orchestra and choir, and lettered  4 years in Tennis.  After graduation, he made the marvelous decision to join the army rather than attend Princeton University on a scholarship. 

His working life began early by raising and selling fresh vegetables to neighbors for 1 cent per lb. less than the price in the store.  After the Army, he started his career with Pacific Telephone in the Bell System.  He received some excellent education there including a Data Communications course and a  course in Business Systems at Cooperstown, NY from a Yale professor.  He worked for quite a few years in Business Marketing and later, because he was critical of an Engineering group at PacTel, was given that position to see if he could do better.  This move to engineering enabled Steve and his family to stay in Sacramento.  Under Steve's leadership, that that engineering team went from one of the worst in the company to one of the best.

 

After his Bell System career, he made use of his real estate license to become a realtor for Coldwell Banker.  Later he went into Real Estate consulting and became a public domain acquisitions expert.  Steve also spent 8 years on the Cameron Park CSD Board, and on the El Dorado County Civil Service Board.  Steve joined the Rotary Club of Cameron Park in 1992, served as Treasurer in 1994-95 and in 2000-2001 served as President.