It is with great sadness that we must report the death of Phil Stepek, who died yesterday after a long battle with cancer. He will be sorely missed. Phil was always friendly and helpful, and often seemed to be many places at once, supplying water, coffee, or snacks, keeping the first-aid kits in order, decorating, and so on. His main focus, of course, was the train of silver cars on which he expended a great deal of energy over the years, and supervised the efforts to restore and operate them, and also keeping them open for visitors when on display in Yard 5. He was a great asset to the Museum, and his death is a great loss for everyone.
The family has apparently decided that there will be no visitation or funeral at this time. There may be a memorial remembrance later in the spring. In the meantime, there is a sympathy card in the woodshop. Please sign it if you're out at the Museum this weekend.
5 comments:
It is difficult to imagine IRM without Phil.
I will add my condolences to the family. He will be missed fully from IRM.
Very sorry to hear. I know the name but the face escapes me. Any pictures of Mr. Stepek?
I'm afraid we don't appear to have any good pictures of him. Can anyone help?
I never met Phil but his name is forever linked with IRM and when I was browsing through the photo gallery there, it didn't surprise me that his photos of works seemed to be everywhere I went. It may be an impractical suggestion but one occurred to me as I was browsing, to the consideration of devising some sort of memorial to members who made significant contributions to the museum if there wasn't one already..perhaps a passenger car, etc, a small plaque that becomes a physical portion of the history of the museum. Just a thought that passed by me...
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