James F. "Jim" Stevenson

1943 - 2020

James F. "Jim" Stevenson

James F. "Jim" Stevenson passed away Saturday, December 5, 2020, age 77, after complications from brain tumor surgery. Jim retired from Honeywell in 2011, after previously working as a research scientist at GenCorp in Akron, Ohio, and as a tenured a professor at Cornell University. In retirement, he devoted his time to family, travel, and politics, while still consulting and teaching.

Jim met his wife, Stefanie "Steffi" Stevenson (née Handelman), a New York City school teacher and former Peace Corps volunteer, in 1970 on a Sunday afternoon in New York City's Riverside Park. He claimed not to know the time in order to strike up a conversation; accounts differ as to whether he first deliberately broke his watch. They raised their family in Ithaca, New York, and later in Hudson, Ohio, before moving to Morristown, New Jersey, in the late 1990s.

Jim shared his passion for science with his family - any given weekend their home featured superconducting magnets, hovercrafts, or a homemade artificial heart. Jim, a former Eagle Scout, shared his enthusiasm for the outdoors on camping trips and rides in a wooden canoe he built in his college years.

Jim benefited from a full scholarship to college, and afterwards sought ways to help other students benefit from an affordable education. He and Steffi fund a science scholarship program and an undergraduate science competition at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, among other causes. From NJIT, he received the "Special Friend of the University" award and he and Steffi were inducted into the Colton Society for their philanthropy.

James F. Stevenson was born July 15, 1943, in Greenville, Pennsylvania. He graduated Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and received his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is survived by his beloved wife Steffi, son Daniel (Shang-Lin) of Taipei, Taiwan; son Jason (Jacqueline) of Salt Lake City, Utah; grandchildren Amelia, Mitchell, Jia-Hao, Jia-Chen, and Calvin; sister Nancy of Greenville and brother John of Philadelphia, and many extended family members. He was preceded in death by his parents Myron and Martha, and a sister, Ann, who died shortly after birth. The family asks that donations be made to the Union of Concerned Scientists.