Steven Botterill

Steven lived next door to me from age 11 till he went to Cambridge. Steven loved to make up fantasy stories and we would enact these across the garden fence in Westbourne Ave. We remained life time friends with his parents and attended both their funerals. We saw Steven a few years before his father's death and reminisced about our childhood. Still enjoy looking at photos of my "Auntie Jeannie and Uncle Pete" and catching up with news of Steven.

The smartest person I ever met. Steven´s illness was one of the 5-10 worst pieces of news I´ll ever receive in my life.

I knew Steven from 1970 onwards when he was in the year above me at Grammar School. He dominated the school with his extraordinary intellect. We stayed firm friends well into the 1990s because I, too, was in the States and I visited him in San Francisco in 1988, helping him adjust to the new culture. I was shocked when he saw of his untimely death and wonder what else this deeply humane man and formidable mind might have achieved had he lived longer. Rest in Peace dear friend. Kevin

I have only now come across this news. I was at primary school with Steven and considered him my best friend during that time (1967-1969). When he left to go to high school our paths diverged but I still remember clearly his well-above-average intellect and the clear signs he was destined to do well in later life. A amazing career and a great loss.

I never knew Dr. Steven Botterill outside of his capacity as the Dean of L&S. We met only once, in the spring of 2015, when I came with an appeal to increase my unit cap. I was in my fourth year at Cal and realized I couldn't leave without taking advantage of study abroad. I wanted to fulfill a teenage dream of mine to visit and study in Paris.

It was an ordinary spring afternoon when I entered his office. He was incredibly warm and welcoming. I was nervous as I made my appeal...

I met Steven shortly after he came to Berkeley through a mutual friend, John Harris, then a student in the classics. The three of us were the best of friends, bonding with laughter and Steven and I stayed close when John left for L.A. As I worked on campus too, Steven and I would frequently meet for lunch and go see films and plays. Although I most remember his quick sense of humor, he was also a very sensitive listener whenever I was going
through a difficult time. I recently came...

I have just, almost by accident, come across news of Steven's death. He taught me when I was an undergraduate at Cambridge and he was a research fellow at Queens with a suite of rooms overlooking the Cam. I liked him enormously, and on more than one occasion he invited me to dine in college with him. We managed a bottle of wine each on those occasions (very much at the limits of my tolerance even then). It's a bit shocking to read that he has gone: he was only a few years older than me. An...

I was at school with Steven. It was a selective school and most of us went on to university at a time when only about 7% of the general population did so. Even among such people, Steve stood out as quite exceptionally able. He had an extraordinarily wide range of knowledge even as a teenager, so it was no surprise that he went on to Cambridge, and to great academic success.
Like Steven, I was the first in my family to go to university, and my life has been shaped by the opportunities...