Outside the Beltway

Steve Story, 1976-2021

We have good reason to believe that a longtime member of the OTB community has passed.

James Joyner
65

Comments

In this morning’s open forum, regular CSK pointed to this memorial

Steve Brandon Story, 45, of Lake City, passed away suddenly on Saturday, September 11, 2021 from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Steve was born on June 30, 1976 to Gayle Story and the late Rick Story of Lake City. He was a 1994 graduate of Columbia High School and graduated from North Carolina State.

Steve lived in Georgia, North Carolina and Washington, but returned home to Lake City. His main hobby was reading and learning about many different things. Steve also loved cooking, trying new recipes and spending time with close friends. Steve is preceded in death by his father, Rick Story; grandparents, Mack and Pauline Morris of Lake City and Clarence Story of Owingsville, KY.

Steve is survived by his mom, Gayle Story of Lake City; brother, Kevin Story of Lake City; aunt, Patricia Everman of Owingsville, KY and his uncle, Bobby Morris of Boston, Mass.

The family will hold a private burial service at a later date. 

with the introduction, “I’m very much afraid that this is our Teve.”

While one very much wishes otherwise, the available evidence points in that direction:

  • Teve posted 1,224 times with an email address that began with “stevestory” (which I don’t mind revealing because he previously posted for quite some time as Teve Tory and before that as Steve S)
  • Teve last posted here at 4:22pm on September 10 and his namesake passed the next day
  • Teve lived in Lake City
  • Teve graduated from NC State
  • And, I’m informed by CSK, the ages seem to match

The only room for doubt is that the Steve Story in the obit graduated high school in 1994 and our Teve graduated NC State in 2004. But it’s hardly unprecedented for people to take a hiatus between high school and college or otherwise take a while to get their degrees.

Steve/Teve posted at least 14,131 comments going back to this one from August 19, 2007. Assuming our fears are true, we have lost a valuable member of our community.

UPDATE: There’s a longish thread on an Intelligent Design forum where Steve was also a longtime contributor marking his passing. Given that it has been up for more than a week without correction, I’m further convinced this is our Teve.

UPDATE (Oct. 1): Upon seeing CSK’s note and before posting this, I sent an email to the account Steve had been posting under as a wellness check. His mom, Gayle, responded last night and confirmed the news.

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65 responses to “Steve Story, 1976-2021”

  1. SC_Birdflyte Avatar
    SC_Birdflyte

    Damn! First Doug, now Steve.

  2. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    Regarding the educational hiatus, if I’m remembering correctly he’d been very badly injured in a car accident before and recovery was slow. That might account for the delay.

    This is such sad news.

  3. Steven L. Taylor Avatar
    Steven L. Taylor

    To add to the sad evidence, Steve’s last tweet was on September 9th.

    Terrible news.

    RIP, Teve.

    5
  4. Flat Earth Luddite Avatar
    Flat Earth Luddite

    Damn. RIP.

  5. Mu Yixiao Avatar
    Mu Yixiao

    RIP

  6. JohnMcC Avatar
    JohnMcC

    A disembodied voice that became part of my community. Rest in peace, my friend.

    1
  7. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    Dean Taylor’s link to the ID forum seems to confirm this awful news. Steve was smart, well-informed, and funny. All qualities I cherish, since they’re in short supply in humanity at large.

    I will miss him and his contributions to this board.

    3
  8. Kit Avatar
    Kit

    Terribly sad news. Steve struck me as a nice guy who could never seem to catch a break.

    1
  9. grumpy realist Avatar
    grumpy realist

    Oh dear. Rest in peace, Steve.

  10. Jax Avatar
    Jax

    Oh man, that sucks!!! I wondered where he had gone! RIP, my friend.

    3
  11. KM Avatar
    KM

    RIP, Teve. Your posts always got a read from me. Our discussions will be lessen by your loss

    1
  12. Kurtz Avatar
    Kurtz

    I had also found his absence curious. This is sad.

    RIP, Teve.

  13. Neil J Hudelson Avatar
    Neil J Hudelson

    I’m really going to miss him.

    Fuck.

    3
  14. Arnold Stang Avatar
    Arnold Stang

    Rest In Peace Steve

  15. OzarkHillbilly Avatar
    OzarkHillbilly

    Vaya con Dios, Amigo.

  16. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    According to his LinkedIn profile, Teve attended No. Carolina State University from 2001-2005, so he must have delayed his education after high school.

    He was also a math and physics tutor, which I believe he may have mentioned once or twice in passing.

  17. Mikey Avatar
    Mikey

    Sad, sad news. RIP Steve. May your memory be a blessing.

  18. MarkedMan Avatar
    MarkedMan

    I always looked forward to his posts. He seemed like a genuinely decent, thoughtful guy

    3
  19. reid Avatar
    reid

    A great loss to our online community. RIP.

  20. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    May his memory be a blessing to us all.

    1
  21. JohnSF Avatar
    JohnSF

    RIP, Steve. It was good to talking with you.
    You’ll be missed.

    1
  22. gVOR08 Avatar
    gVOR08

    Damn.

  23. Raoul Avatar
    Raoul

    Teve was insightful and I loved his avatars-rip.

    1
  24. Michael Reynolds Avatar
    Michael Reynolds

    Well, fuck. I really liked the guy. We sometimes interacted on Twitter, though I couldn’t say I knew him well. Smart guy, sweet, decent, and just fuck.

    7
  25. Jay L Gischer Avatar
    Jay L Gischer

    As bad a news item as this is, it’s better than what usually happens, which is that people just kind of disappear into the ether, never to be heard from again, and I never know what happened. Did they die, or just get bored? Maybe their computer broke?

    RIP Steve. Vaya con Dios.

    2
  26. Monala Avatar
    Monala

    I’m so sorry to hear this. I always enjoyed his comments and contributions. RIP, Teve.

  27. Not the IT Dept. Avatar
    Not the IT Dept.

    G*d damn it. Condolences to his family and friends.

  28. Crusty Dem Avatar
    Crusty Dem

    Damn. RIP Teve.

  29. inhumans99 Avatar
    inhumans99

    Teve was what I considered a giant on this great blog, he was always active in the comments sections and liked responding to posts. This is such sad news, but believe it or not Jay is correct, it is so much better to receive some closure on why a long-time member of this site stopped posting rather than letting one’s imagination run wild with reasons why someone stopped posting.

    Teve will be missed. RIP Steve Story. 45 years of age is much too young to have passed away.

    3
  30. Mister Bluster Avatar
    Mister Bluster

    I just read a FB post by a dear friend that today is the 20th anniversary of the loss of her father to a hit and run driver when she was in Grade School. The killer was never found.

    Now this.

    Peace, Love and Tears…Far too many tears

    1
  31. just nutha Avatar
    just nutha

    Late to the wake, but this is sad news. RIP

  32. Gustopher Avatar
    Gustopher

    Well, that’s a kick in the gut. Seemed like a good, standup guy, and definitely played one on the Internet. Oof.

    1
  33. mattbernius Avatar
    mattbernius

    What awful news. (S)teve was a good guy (or at least he was in his presence here). He will be missed.

    1
  34. Scott F. Avatar
    Scott F.

    This is such sad news. May he rest In peace.

  35. Mimai Avatar
    Mimai

    I have good memories of when he started working at the mattress store. He didn’t post as often during this time, but when he did he’d regale us with stories from the sales floor and give us specs on the best mattresses.

    Even better, his posts during this time showed a clear bump in pride and joie de vivre. He geeked out on mattresses. And other stuff too. I like that in people. And I liked it in Steve.

    10
  36. Christine Avatar
    Christine

    Damn. I really enjoyed his comments, insight and humor. Sad day indeed. Rest in power, Teve.

  37. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    @Mimai:
    I recall also that he was interested in lower cholesterol recipes (he liked telling us about foods he prepared, as does Kathy), and wanted to expand his knowledge of poetry.

    I really feel bad about his death. He and I had a funny back and forth once in which I was the parent and he was the recalcitrant teenager.

    7
  38. Jax Avatar
    Jax

    @CSK: It’s bothering me, too. There’s an accident report on the 11th in Lake City that a 45 year old man was killed instantly in a head-on crash with a semi, I’m assuming that’s him and I am at least grateful that he did not suffer.

    I’m kinda bummed I won’t ever find out what the story was with why he quit the mattress store, though. I figured he’d tell it in his own time.

    2
  39. Mimai Avatar
    Mimai

    @CSK: Oh yeah, I remember those cooking posts too. Lower salt recipes if I’m not mistaken. I enjoy those “little” personal tidbits.

    @Jax: I did wonder about the accident. Lake City (where he lived) is north of Gainesville (where he worked/leisured), connected by I-75. That section of interstate is notoriously dangerous. I’ve lost a few friends/colleagues on that stretch. I wondered if that’s where his collision occurred.

    1
  40. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    @Jax:
    According to the report, he was driving north in the southbound lane of US Route 441 when the two vehicles collided.

    Awful.

  41. EddieInCA Avatar
    EddieInCA

    Well, this sucks…

    I’ve been fortunate to meet several people from this community. Teve was one I was hoping to meet next time I was his way. OTB is an oasis for me – a break from 12-14 hour days under crazy pressure. Teve was one whose comments I always enjoyed. I agreed mostly with him, but disagreed enough to keep it interesting. He was smart, sane, and had an interesting life journey. Not too many guys working selling cell phones know quantum physics or science like he did. It was fascinating to me how he’d be talking about the subject of the day, and casually drop in a reference to some past exploit or knowledge he had like it was nothing, but would make me sit up and say “Whoa. Dude that could be a post upon itself.”

    A perfect example from a year ago, Teve wrote:

    Do you know how to make Adrenochrome? You oxidize epinephrine. I just checked Sigma Aldrich and you can buy 10 g of chemically pure epinephrine for $150. $150 and a smart chemistry undergrad could get you 1 million times more Adrenochrome than you could get from a person.

    Who the hell knows this stuff? Teve did. Certainly not me.

    RIP. I’m sorry we never met.

    18
  42. de stijl Avatar
    de stijl

    Today is a good day to tell your loved ones that you respect them. Like them. Sometimes love them.

    Our days are not infinite. Live today like you mean it.

    5
  43. grumpy realist Avatar
    grumpy realist

    It’s one thing when people die at the end of a lingering illness; it’s quite another when it’s unexpected.

    (And then there’s people who have health issues but are maintaining themselves and then all of a sudden everything cascades downwards. Lost my SO that way.)

  44. CSK Avatar
    CSK

    It appears that Teve was either on his way to or leaving his mother’s house.

    Worse and worse. The poor woman must be deranged with grief–as would be his other family members.

    2
  45. Mu Yixiao Avatar
    Mu Yixiao

    Something that I’ve long wondered:

    If I died in a way that didn’t make the news, how long would it take before anybody noticed?

    And I’m not just talking about online. I mean people I interact with, in person, on a regular basis.

  46. Michael Cain Avatar
    Michael Cain

    On a slightly practical note, I have been thinking about how to leave information for my spouse (or children, depending on age and the progression of her dementia) about online groups that should be notified when I die. For obvious reasons, some do not make an e-mail address available. Suggestions, please?

    I see Mu Yixiao beat me to this. But I got an edit button!

  47. Andy Avatar
    Andy

    That just plain sucks. Death at such a young age is a real tragedy.

    Thanks for posting this. It helps to put a real face to an online avatar.

    3
  48. Kylopod Avatar
    Kylopod

    Damn, this is a shock. He was always interesting to read, and we interacted all the time. He was about six months older than me, making him probably the closest to me in age among the regulars here, and among the younger people here overall. My heart goes out to his family.

    I also hate to belabor the point, but I had a comparable break in time between graduation from high school and college–also the mid-’90s to mid-2000s.

  49. Bob@Youngstown Avatar
    Bob@Youngstown

    I can’t possibly add to what has already been said, so I’ll just say short and sweet:
    RIP, fellow traveler

    2
  50. Jax Avatar
    Jax

    @Kylopod: Yep, I’ve always paid attention to you two because we’re all about the same age….I think Neil and Matt are slightly younger, most of the other regulars are all a little older than us. Pearce was about our age, too, I think, and Kurtz probably is close.

    @Michael Cain: I was thinking about that earlier, too. We need a “Death Bot”. Set it up on your computer when you do your will, leave instructions on how to activate it, and the bot goes through your email and unsubcribes or shuts down all your online accounts. Paid versions could scrub all the porn and questionable content you wouldn’t want a loved one to see and notify forums like this of the person’s passing.

    @Mu Yixiao: I would notice if you weren’t HERE for a while. The comments section on this site keep me sane while living in a Trumpy world, I’m not afraid to admit I spend a lot of damn time here. 😛 I notice when regulars don’t comment for a while, it was unlike Teve to not give a pronouncement on the row with France and the subs, or have something to contribute in another way on the Open Forum’s.

    2
  51. EddieInCA Avatar
    EddieInCA

    @Jax: @Michael Cain:

    My sister has both an encrypted flash drive and an encrypted microsoft word file that lists my computer, ipad, phone and website passwords, all my banking information, all my insurance and legal paperwork and contacts, and all the sites I frequent. I update it pretty much every six months. I give it to her while I visit her in Idaho, and we together destroy the old one.

    If someone posts with the name Allison about my death, it’s legit. I sleep well knowing she has this info.

    6
  52. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    I am fascinated and encouraged to see how closely many of us read (past tense) Teve and read (present tense – damnit English) each other. I have often thought of creating a spread sheet of revealed attributes of regular contributors since most of us (not hosts or Reynolds) don’t share full identity data, but are pretty free with our geographies and histories. The spreadsheet always seemed like a creeper project, but I am glad we read and remember. I am glad people here went to look for Teve. It is a compliment and a service to this commentariat.

    7
  53. Jax Avatar
    Jax

    @Joe: I think you should actually do it, because it’s bothered me throughout this pandemic that there might have been irregular and yet still valuable commenter’s that we’ve missed their passing. None of their loved ones may have known to notify us.

    I don’t comment a whole lot, but I notice when regulars are missing. I get excited when I see the oddballs pop up again, because I know they made it! Even if you only share the spreadsheet with the hosts, at least we can mourn our own when they pass.

  54. Matt Bernius Avatar
    Matt Bernius

    @EddieInCA:
    That is kinda next level.

    We also know there is a “release the top shelf whisky” order somewhere in there too.

    Hopefully Allison didn’t have to do her work for years.

    Which reminds me I should really update my “in case of” list…

    4
  55. Tony W Avatar
    Tony W

    RIP Steve.

    I’ve been hanging around here for over a decade at this point, reading a ton, learning from all of you, and maybe contributing just a little. We have known we lost a few folks over that period, and I’m sure we’ve lost many people that we figured went off to some other site. The community here is as strong as any in-person group of colleagues or classmates I have ever been a part of. It is honest and real, and no-BS is tolerated.

    Humans need closure in our relationships when they end, and the online world doesn’t really provide for that except when someone cares enough to sleuth out the available information and make a connection.

    There’s probably a business opportunity out there for a place to register farewell messages that are released when a loved one logs in with a special code indicating you have passed.

    In this case, I am glad that we have the opportunity to honor Steve.

    3
  56. Jim Brown 32 Avatar
    Jim Brown 32

    Unfreakingbelievable! Even weirder I just read this post after gasing up on HWY 441 right at I-10 in Lake City on my way back to Bay County.

    RIP Steve. Life is surely but a breath

    3
  57. keef Avatar
    keef

    One is always reflective at the time of someone’s passing, all the more so when it happens to someone at young age.

    I hope his life was full, even if all too short.

    5
  58. EddieInCA Avatar
    EddieInCA

    @Matt Bernius:

    My best friend died of cancer 111 years ago. From the time he was diagnosed to the time he died was six weeks. First five weeks was fairly normal, except for the radiation and chemo. Sixth week he deteriorated very, very quickly. He was in and out of the hospital so much that final week, he didn’t have time to put together his affairs. Took his daughter more than a year to figure all his stuff out. It was a nightmare.

    2
  59. EddieInCA Avatar
    EddieInCA

    @EddieInCA:

    Ugh. 11 years ago.

  60. Michael Reynolds Avatar
    Michael Reynolds

    @EddieInCA:
    My father is in early stages of dementia and is cared for by his third wife (We’re a true California family, mom’s on her fourth) who is a genuinely sweet person though somewhat addled by Fox News and Facebook. She was resisting getting the vax til I told her rather coldly that if that’s how she was playing it I needed copies of their wills and end of life preferences ASAP.

    I got the docs, she got the shot.

    2
  61. Blue Galangal Avatar
    Blue Galangal

    This is such sad news. Teve was a mainstay and someone whose perspective I always enjoyed. Thank you for letting us know. RIP, Steve.

    1
  62. SC_Birdflyte Avatar
    SC_Birdflyte

    @Jim Brown 32: I drove that route many times going home from college and it can be dangerous. What an effing shame to lose Steve in such a tragic way. RIP, buddy.

    2
  63. Chip Daniels Avatar
    Chip Daniels

    I’m very sorry to hear of this.

  64. The Q Avatar
    The Q

    Teve says:
    Monday, 23 August 2021 at 10:41
    @CSK: if this were 1860 in the Nevada territory I’d occasionally amble into the saloon and ask for a shot of whiskey with a dash of rattlesnake venom, for the bracing effects. But it’s 2021 and I go to Lucianne for 5 minutes instead.

    R.I.P. Mr. Story. We will miss you in spirit and presence.

    1
  65. becca Avatar
    becca

    Bye, Teve. See you in the stars.

    1

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