Deceased May 24, 2018

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In Memory

Our class remembers Steve Hazen fondly. Classmates knew him as friendly, helpful and solid. Rad Hastings recalls, “Steve was our resident hippie. He owned a gorgeous, tricked-out VW bus. He was good guy and could party hard.”

He played hard too. Eric Cody remembers playing alongside Steve on the freshman soccer team, praising Steve as fast and scrappy with a powerful kick.

Steve lived life fully and sometimes threw caution to the wind. John Welch remembers a long-ago conversation he had with Steve at the Chi Phi bar. “Steve was one cool dude. I remember a story he told me about an adventure in his native New Mexico with a cave-exploring buddy. They violated rule #1 (never separate when exploring a cave). Steve was descending down a narrow funnel so tight he had to stretch his arms directly in front of him to inch forward, trying to get through into another cavern. His canteen, strapped to his waist, got wedged against the cave wall, stopping his forward progress and preventing him from backing out. Steve became trapped. ‘What the hell did you do?’ I asked. He took his helmet off, turned off the light and went to sleep! An hour later his buddy found him and pulled him out by his boots. The incident didn’t stem Steve’s love for cave exploration.”

Professionally, Steve was a well-known builder in his hometown of Tucson and for the last few years was passionate about Old Pueblo Trolley (OPT), a local nonprofit that restores old streetcars, buses and trains to their prior grandeur.

Steve passed away peacefully on May 24, 2018. Our sincere condolences to Steve’s wife Patsy and the rest of his family.

Eric Cody ’72

 

We are saddened to report the passing of one of our key volunteers and board member, Steve Hazen. We first met Steve in 2013 when we leased property from him on 18th Street when we had to move from the adjacent property the City was selling. He quickly became interested in what we were doing and offered the help of his construction/maintenance crew supervised by Wayne Frey to help with some aspects of the move—relocating our work shelter and temporarily taking down the chain link fence to allow easier access to the property.

Since the use of the 18th Street property was contingent on Steve not needing it for parking for the building to the east, we knew we needed to look for a permanent home. With Steve's construction expertise, we expected he could be invaluable in the search for a building and property and invited him to serve on our Property Search Committee. He spent many hours locating and evaluating potential buildings with Gene Caywood. Once our new facility on 36th and S. 4th was acquired, the property committee became the Planning Committee overseeing needed building modifications, the move of all our vehicles and equipment to the new site and seeking funding to pay for the above and pay off the balance owed.

Steve was heavily involved, on a daily basis, in all these efforts, working alongside Gene to make it all happen. In the process he twisted the arms of friends, family and people in the building industry he had worked with to help. He arranged a $20,000 donation to pay for moving and building upgrade expenses from a foundation established by family members. He worked out an exchange with Chris Scott that gave us a fork lift to use for moving, and often could be seen in his distinctive cowboy hat operating it. He took on any job that needed to be done from loading and unloading trailers with boxes or rail or ties or whatever, to supervising and training students in our training program, and obtaining discounts and donations from businesses and individuals. It simply wouldn't have happened without Steve.

Old Pueblo Trolley