by Travis Mateer
By the end of this post I hope you are angry that I told this man–who you REALLY do need to hear from–not to bother submitting his opinion piece to local media.
Who am I talking about?
Before I answer that question, I’m going to string you along just a bit longer by explaining why this post wasn’t written two years ago.
It’s pretty simple. The humility of the Stevenson family, combined with my lack of due diligence as a citizen journalist, temporarily obscured the impressive catalogue of achievements Dr. Kenneth Stevenson has earned for himself.
Today, two years and twelve days since his son died in Missoula, I’m going to do my best to bring Dr. Stevenson out from obscurity in preparation for the day you WILL hear from him.
Let’s start off with a bang.
In 1979 (the year after I was born) Ken Stevenson was one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans (TOYA) recognized for kicking ass in AT LEAST three of the following categories:
- Business, economic, and/or entrepreneurial accomplishment
- Political, legal, and/or government affairs
- Academic leadership and/or accomplishment
- Cultural achievement
- Moral and/or environmental leadership
- Contribution to children, world peace, and/or human rights
- Humanitarian and/or voluntary leadership
- Scientific and/or technological development
- Personal improvement and/or accomplishment
- Medical innovation
John Denver and Bill Clinton were two other notable TOYA awardees.
Let’s see, what else?
Following high school, Stevenson won a Congressional appointment to the Air Force Academy. It was the beginning of a fourteen-year Air Force career which saw Stevenson graduate as one of only five blacks in his class of almost 700.
After pilot training, Stevenson was assigned to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) as a B-52 co-pilot and rapidly progressed to instructor-copilot one of only two In SAC to hold that position at that time. He volunteered for combat duty in Southeast Asia and amassed almost 1200 combat flying hours and 210 combat missions. He received ten Air Medals and three Distinguished Flying Crosses for his service. He also advanced to command his own B-52 crew at the age of 25 and was one of the youngest commanders in SAC.
Determined to improve himself academically, Stevenson was selected by the Air Force Academy to attend a Master’s program at the University of Pittsburgh and returned to his hometown. While he was enrolled in this program, the University administration recognized his diverse talents and (while he was still a full-time student) asked him to establish and teach an undergraduate course in Black Literature. He took on this responsibility in addition to serving as a Liaison Officer for the Air Force Academy. Even with this full schedule, he finished his Master of Arts in English, Cum Laude, in only nine months.
There’s more. Much more. And the synchronicities are ALL OVER this for me, like watching the series Carnivàle and having a little scene with a shroud placed over the body of “management” floor me because it’s a clear reference to the shroud of Turin.
Did I mention Dr. Kenneth Stevenson has done significant work on the shroud, has written several books, and that two of those books recently arrived at my studio by mail?
I’ll leave it there, for now.
Happy MLK day, Missoula!