James F. Stevenson

1943 - 2020

1943 - 2020 James F. "Jim" Stevenson passed away Saturday, December 5, 2020, age 77, after complications from brain tumor surgery. Jim worked as a research scientist at GenCorp (now Aerojet Rocketdyne) in Akron and was active in the University of Akron polymer science community in the 1980s and 1990s. He previously was a professor at Cornell University and later worked at Honeywell. 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 and sought ways to help other students receive an affordable education, including a scholarship program and competition he and Steffi funded at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. 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.