Stephen Powers

Born: June 10, 1936 in Bakersfield, California

Died: March 20, 2023 in Tucson, Arizona

In Tucson He was married 54 years to Gail, the love of his life. He deeply loved his brother Robert, and he was enormously proud of his children Rebecca, Joseph, and Rick whom he loved tremendously. Steve was born June 10, 1936 in Bakersfield, California where he grew up, and later lived in Los Angeles and Yuma Arizona. He attended the University of Arizona on a music scholarship where he played with the UA Symphony Orchestra. He also attended Northern Arizona University. Later he graduated from the UA with a PhD in Education in 1978. In addition he completed post-doctoral studies at the University of Michigan and Oxford University.

Steve worked for many years in several professions: he was a high school teacher of Spanish, English, and history for 12 years, an evaluation specialist in the Tucson Unified School District for 18 years, and the president of his company Creative Research Associates for 23 years. He retired at age 80. In addition he served as an adjunct professor of statistics at the University of Arizona for 8 years in the Educational Psychology Department of the University of Arizona. Additionally he taught statistics part-time for Northern Arizona University for 20 years. Steve published over 80 research articles on personality issues, student achievement and computer programs for advanced statistical analysis. His advanced statistical analysis publications were requested by the Soviet Union Statistics Department, Indian Statistical Institute, and other national departments.

Steve conducted evaluations of a variety of federal programs in Education, Native American Education, Public Health, Social Programs, Community Development and Law Enforcement. He served as an international consultant to United States Agency for International Development (Egypt, Yemen), World Bank (Adhirbayjan), United Nations Development Programme (Kosovo), Health for Humanity (Albania) LEARN Inc. (Uganda, Tanzania) and other projects from Alaska to the Congo Republic.

Steve enjoyed traveling to many countries to explore new cultures, languages and people and studied Spanish, French, Turkish, Persian, Arabic, and Swahili.

In retirement in Tucson, Steve was active on the Board of the United Nations of Southern Arizona, Amistades, and in the Baha’i Community. Steve passed away from complications of an endoscopic procedure that resulted in pancreatitis that could not be stabilized. His memorial and celebration of life will be held on March 26, 2023 at 7575 E. Speedway Blvd at 2:00 pm in Tucson. His burial will be held at East Lawn Palms Cemetery on Monday, March 27, 2023 at 1:30 pm in Tucson.