​From: Cindy Vetter

Hi Jeremy, Troy Marsh shared your post about your dad's passing. I am so terribly sorry. Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with many friends from high school and I had hoped to somehow catch up with your dad. Thanks for sharing a bit about him and for posting pictures. I'm the girl in the prom picture. We dated for a while when he was a senior and I was a junior. I remember that he loved Jimi Hendrix. I bought him an album for Christmas or his birthday; I can't remember which it was. I didn't realize how serious he was about music, playing and performing. That's pretty neat. It also makes me very happy to know that he got a college education and worked in an art field. Mr. Breckner, our high school art teacher, liked to talk about former students who had art and design careers. He would be very proud of Steve's accomplishments. Life could have gone very differently. I think he talked of joining the Marines after high school. There were lots of manufacturing/factory jobs in our area and many people I knew in high school chose that career path. Many of us did not stick around Warren. We went away to college and kept on going. I do go back to visit my family several times a year. Howland was a nice place to grow up. Our school was small enough that most everyone knew who everyone else was. Your mom was three years ahead of me, so I didn't know her well. My two older sisters knew Sandy and Lindy better than I. I was a cheerleader and your dad played football, as I'm sure you knew. I hope he told you that he received the "Unsung Hero" award his senior year. That was a nice thing, as linemen don't get much attention. I came across the prom picture that I have, not long ago, I think at my mom's house. I got a kick out of seeing it on your web site. I'm surprised that Steve still had it. So, I'd like to share a story about prom night: Steve came to pick me up to go to the prom. (Back then, the prom was at school in the gym. We juniors decorated the gym with a crepe paper streamer "ceiling" and murals covering the closed-up bleachers. Dinner was in the cafeteria. Junior class parents worked to put the dinner together.) My parents had already gone to school to help out with whatever they were doing there. We went out to get into the car (his) and it wouldn't start. Steve called his dad to let him know that there was car trouble. But there was an alternative--a '56 Volkswagon beetle that my grandfather had given us. It was a quirky little car with no radio, no gas gauge and bad kingpins. I was going to do the driving, but Steve was not going to be driven to the prom. He said he was going to drive. So, all dressed up, we took the beetle to the prom. I was very nervous that my dad wouldn't like that Steve drove the car (lordy-- he was anal about stuff and loved to yell about the most trivial things), so when we got there and I ran into him, I wanted him to know that Steve's car wouldn't start and we had to come in the VW. But I told my dad that I drove, to avoid having him get mad and yell. He thought it was so funny that I drove my date to the prom. Over the years it became a story that he told many times. Relatives heard the story and everyone thought it was funny. One of my sisters liked to bring it up as a way to make fun of me. I never corrected the story. For a time, I thought my dad would be furious that I had lied. Later, I thought that if I told the real story that he would be angry that I'd allowed him to continue to share a story that wasn't true. As more time passed, I always thought I needed to tell my dad that I really hadn't driven the car to the prom, but at that point I thought it would hurt his feelings that I had let this story go on for so log, but it continued to weigh on my conscience. I did finally 'fess up at his funeral, in 2003, taking away my sister's pleasure in teasing me about it. I also felt I owed Steve an apology for letting my family think I chauffeured him to the prom. I'm very sorry that your dad became ill, that he didn't get another twenty or so more years to enjoy life, art, family, retirement. He was a great guy when I knew him in high school. From what you've shared, he must have been an awesome dad and an all-around great man.