Carl and I shared a love of great music, including the classics, fast cars, daring driving, and good BBQ. We also shared all of our adult lives as friends. We met in junior high school and became neighbors during high school. We remained close for over 65 years. I think that is a miraculous run, and I am grateful for the time.

Carl and I worked for Western Electric just after high school and shared a drive to work every day. I had a fast car and liked to come up to a light and take off super fast to jump the line of slow drivers, which I ironically eventually became. One day, I took off with the pedal to the floor, and so did the car next to us. I couldn’t pass this guy, and I yelled to Carl, “We’re not going to make it!” That took him out of a twilight state and scared the hell out of him. We laughed about this for the rest of our lives.

One day,  he called me over (from next door), and we went into his room and he played Handel’s Water Music Suite #2 in D, Alla Hornpipe, on his over-the-top sound system. He played it so loud it cracked the plaster in the ceiling. It was a transcendent experience for both of us. We celebrated these classics as well as pop music. We simply shared the joy of exploration.

Carl and I also shared some very dark times. He suffered from diabetic neuralgia with excruciating pain in his feet. I was suffering from trigeminal neuralgia with excruciating pain in my face around the same time. You cannot imagine the pain these conditions caused. On more than one occasion, we discussed ending our lives to escape the hell we were in. We were on the phone, guns beside us. Was this going to be the night? I think it was the talks we shared that kept us both plugging along. How do you put a value on that?

Carl was my traveling friend throughout life and was present at so many of life’s key moments. I still find myself thinking about a PC question and wanting to call Carl, then I realize I no longer can. It is sad to have him gone. I miss him.

It's hard to encapsulate in one short memorial all the wonderfully disparate memories that my exceptionally fine friend bequeathed to me these past sixty-six+ years.

Carl was always extra-sentient, aware and focused, whereas I was none of these things.   His early family life was normal, settled, with easy, comfortable rhythms, whereas mine was jumbled and chaotic.

Looking back, I can now more deeply appreciate the extent to which Carl and his wonderful parents were God's special gift to me, day by day and year by year, never a string attached.   

Over those years, without exactly knowing it, Carl became my seventh brother.  But as is so often the case with the siblings who are deeply but subconsciously rooted in our mind and heart, we often don't  stop to appreciate how much such special people mean to us.  After all, won't we be speaking to them again tomorrow and all the tomorrows that follow?

The Carl I met in second grade was a very cool kid.  (He was my only friend, duly and fully vetted by my strict Canadian mother.)  When Carl Sr. and Audrey vacationed up north, Carl always made sure that I was invited to tag along.  These excursions were filled with innumerable rare moments a poor kid could not possibly have experienced were it not for my friends, the generous, loving Stevens family.

But we don't remain second graders forever.  Many years of more distant friendship ensued, yet Carl was never far from mind.  I am perpetually grateful that in more recent years there was occasion for many long, far-ranging conversations, during which time it dawned on me, little by little, what a downright beautiful human being Carl was from earliest childhood.  So funny, good-natured, generous, and humane, always ready to sacrifice himself to benefit others, and ever wise, practical and prudent.  

I can never say enough good things about Carl John Stevens Jr., who was a precious gift to family and friends, one to stand the test of time.  He was the real deal writ large.

I worked with Carl for 18 years.Carl was a smart and conceptual man. Carl was a great people person. He  worked well with his techs as well as the customer. 
I have fond memories of Carl off and on the job. I remember our trips to Victoria to watch the Canucks.Carl being from Detroit and me from Boston we love hockey.
Carl was well liked and had a great sense of humor. His sarcasm was even better than mine. . 
Towards the end of our career Carl and I sat right next to each other and we became closer. I will treasury our friendship for the rest of my life.

I first met Carl over 40 years ago while we both were working at General Telephone. We were both attending a training session and rolling our eyes at the nonsense we were being asked to buy into. We would become very good friends from that moment on. We both shared a common view of the absurdities in the world around us and the times in my life when I was laughing the hardest and longest were always with Carl. Disbelief is the word I still use most often to describe his passing.


Miscellany: 
He was a generous man who would always be ready to admit that you were wrong. 

No one could with such perfect innocence bring up something guaranteed to agitate the listener and then he would act surprised at the reaction. You never saw it coming. 

He knew more rap lyrics than any middle-aged white guy should know and then he would follow that by quoting Shakespeare to you.

Long ago, when we used telephone answering machines at home, Carl’s answering machine’s greeting would be in Morse code.

Uncle Carl was a very funny man. In a lot of ways, he was like a big kid. I used to love it when he would visit us in Canada.  He was the only adult I've ever known who could recite every word of Rapper's Delight. As my brother reminded me recently, he also knew pretty much every line of every Seinfeld episode. 

On one visit when I was around 14 or 15 Justin and I went to an all-ages night at a local night club. Uncle Carl kept saying he was coming with us, dressed in fluorescent spandex, to strut his stuff on a podium. I was pretty sure he was joking, but not entirely.

As my grandparents got further into their 80s and 90s, they developed some habits which weren't always the easiest to live with.  For instance, they started to heat their house at unbearable temperatures. Uncle Carl and my Mum both struggled a bit with this at times, and with how loud Grandpa had the volume on the TV. Uncle Carl had a way of making all of this easier to handle. When he would visit Michigan, he would sometimes send us regular updates and pictures of the thermostat, which would be cranked up to the high 80s. Laughing about it somehow eased the tensions.  

A few years ago Uncle Carl talked to me on the phone about buying a winnebago and going travelling around the US. We both knew it was probably just talk, but I kept hoping he would do it, and that I would get the chance to join him at some point. 

I can't think of anyone better to have been on the road with than him.

I still can’t believe my baby brother is gone. It happened much too soon. Carl, I love you and will miss you always. I’m so happy we had 2 full months together last year after so many years of seeing each other sporadically.

My condolences to Carl’s family and friends. I met Carl in Puerto Vallarta about 20 years ago. I was dating his niece Laura and we were there for New Years.  Carl and I hit it off immediately. We riffed on cultural references and our own pithy observations of what was going on around us. He was an expert story-teller with a terrific sense of humor. 

Ellen and Dave took Carl and I to see murals in Bucerias.  We began our journey with a few beers and I imagine we were quite thirsty after the bus ride.  A few more street beers!  In hindsight, I’m not sure Carl even liked beer? Carl and I wandered off together at a tourist market where we began talking about how Carl needs a hat. The most gringo hat in all of Mexico lands on his head.  I sure hope some of you got to see the leather Stetson with a stamped bald eagle design upon it? It was glorious. 

On the bus ride back to PV, Carl turns to me with a sparkle in his eye and says, “Marc, why didn’t you stop from buying the hat?”  “Um, because you look great in it Carl and it seemed like you knew what you were doing.  Street beer?”  We laughed. 

Our last communication was about three years ago and had an interceding gap of about ten years. We had a poignant email exchange. He asked for literature recommendations and we made vague plans to have a beer together sometime in Toronto.  We did not get to have that beer.  

I sure hope you are wondering about the hat?  I know I did. Carl reported to me that a number of years ago a storage locker he kept some things in was broken into.  The hat was one of the items stolen.  Carl and I both hoped someone was strolling around Seattle with that hat on. 

Isn’t it strange and wonderful that someone who you know for 2-3 weeks over the span of a few years, two decades ago, can leave such an impression on you?  I think it is rare and remarkable and I know Carl did too.

Will miss you very much. Great guy. Chris and I always saw you as the coolest guy around. We appreciate the small but fatherly-ish role you played in our lives. We both hold it close to our hearts. You made a very long lasting impact on our lives. You always had great jokes, you were very smart, witty, and very positive whenever we talked. It's been 24 years since we last saw each other and at least once every month I pictured us meeting up again and what it would be like. I will really miss you but will always appreciate you. I was in Jamaica last month and I heard Rapper's Delight and that song always reminded me of you and how you knew every word. You will always be the coolest guy to me. Love you and will dearly miss you.

Carl was my first love.  
I enjoyed just being with him.
Made me laugh and groan at his puns.
We met in high school and later after college we got together again and had a child Justin.
Although after 6 years together  we parted as very close friends for over 50 years.
I will truely miss him.
He was Uncle Carl to my two sons and was very important influence in their life.
I will always hold a special spot in my heart for Carl and smile when I think of him.

So very sorry to hear.
My codolences to our son Justin and his sister Ellen

Knew Carl better back in the post HS era but it was always good to see and talk with him. Ham radio Short wave listening and CB were topics and we boy were Boy Scouts in different troops.
Will miss his smile and humor.
Hit us up with some Skip when conditions allow!

My longtime friend of 58 years will be missed.  Ham radio, Moody Blues and whole wheat pizza will never be the same without you.

73s OM DE WB8BDR 

Gerard

OBITUARIO

Carl John Stevens Jr.

3 junio, 1951 – 28 febrero, 2024

Lifetime Celebrations by Washelli

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