Steven Eugene Wallis

Steven Eugene Wallis
Steven Eugene Wallis died on July 29, 2021, at his home in Petaluma, California, from metastatic choroidal melanoma.
He is predeceased by his father Glen and survived by his wife Cecily; mother Nancy Jenks; brothers Samuel (Erin), Peter (Denise), and James (Kim); son Arthur (Ash); daughter Angela (Josh), and granddaughters, Austin and Eleanor, and many nieces and nephews.
Steven was born on October 4, 1960, in Southern California, but spent his formative years in Corte Madera. As a youth, he was active in the Boy Scouts where he was an elected member of the Order of the Arrow. He enjoyed a wide variety of hobbies from reading science fiction to scuba diving.
Graduating early from Redwood High School, he attended College of Marin where he earned AS degrees in electronics and science. He also became involved in community theater. In 1983, he met and married Diana Citti and later moved to Petaluma with their two children. They divorced in 1990.
Steven had a career in engineering at the Marin Municipal Water District, serving in multiple positions over many years. While at MMWD, Steve earned a BA in sociology and an MA in organizational psychology at Sonoma State University, using those skills for occasional consulting projects. At SSU, he met Cecilia (Cecily) Keleti and they married in 1998. In 2006, he earned his PhD from Fielding Graduate University and began to study knowledge – how we know what we know to be useful understandings of the world around us.
After retiring from MMWD in 2014, Steven served as a Fulbright Specialist in Germany and a visiting scholar in Italy. He became an award-winning scholar and was Director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Social Theory. His passion was researching and consulting on theory, policy, and strategic planning. An interdisciplinary thinker, his publications cover a range of fields including psychology, ethics, science, management, organizational learning, entrepreneurship, policy, and program evaluation with over 40 publications in peer-reviewed journals, a monograph, and a textbook on "practical mapping." In addition, he spent ten years supporting doctoral candidates at Capella University.
Steven was an avid fencer, enjoyed large- and small-scale home repair projects, playing chess, and driving his sidecar "Igor". He and Cecily traveled extensively visiting many locations in Europe, South America and South Africa, and recently exploring in their RV.
Steven had a loving, generous, and kind heart, and was always ready to help in any way. His intellect and sense of humor were unsurpassed. He will be missed by all who were lucky to know him.
"Death is not a frightening thing, but a more saddening thing by far.
For the loss of touch of family and friends, and ending that quest for the impossible star."
A private memorial was held. Any donation to your favorite academic institution or to Hospice of Petaluma, in lieu of flowers, would be greatly appreciated.