Steven St. John
From Eliafamily
Contents |
Steven James St. John
| Steven St. John | |
|---|---|
| |
| Fact File | |
| Birth Date: | September 9, 1971 |
| Family Information | |
| Lineage: | Angela Ocello Lineage |
| Parent: | Angela St. John |
| Siblings: | Kevin St. John |
| Children: | Kathryn St. John Julia St. John |
Early Life
Steven James was born September 9, 1971 in Albany, New York to James and Angela St. John. His early passions were, in no particular order, dinosaurs, Star Wars action figures, legos, and sports. His favorite childhood memory comes from the baseball diamond, which he tells in his own words:
"I was always able to bat both left-handed and right-handed. When I was around 10 or 11, I came up to the plate lefty and the opposing coach shifted all of his outfielders over to the right side. I waited for them to make the switch, then I turned around right-handed. After taking a pitch, I noticed the fielders had returned to their normal positions, so I again shifted to the opposite side, and the coach again shifted the players. The result of that at bat is not memorable, but when I came up again, the umpire remembered me and muttered 'Here comes the kid who can't make up his mind.' I made up my mind to bat right handed this time, and went about creaming my first and only home run of my career. (I also remember how the rest of our team started swinging for the fences for the rest of the game, leading to a very unsatisfying loss.)"
Steve moved around a lot, from Albany to Trenton to Fairfax County, Virginia, to Minnesota. After seventh grade, he moved to Tallahassee, Florida. By high school, Steve's small stature forced academics to take pre-eminence over sports, and Steve excelled in a team "brain brawl" competition that was rewarded by a couple of thousand dollar scholarships and two trips to Disney World. The team event also landed him on local TV for several weeks on a game-show called "Mindquest". Academic success led to a scholarship to the University of Florida, where he was able to take several electives in looking for a major.
Although Steve's family moved around a lot in his childhood, he always had the feeling that New York was his "home base". He remembers fondly the family reunions in Canandaigua, which always began with a "running of the gauntlet" through throngs of kissing aunts and hugging uncles whose love he felt, but whose names he rarely knew. Steve's memory of the relationships and names was never very strong, but his memory of the emotions, the goodness, the fun, and the food made these reunions a highlight of many summers, and undoubtedly stimulated his creation of the first Elia Family website in 2001. He also remembers many trips to Norwich to visit his grandma, days filled with great food, the Chenango County fair, clandestine visits to grandpa's basement treasure of old stuff, crossword puzzles with grandma, watching ballgames or reading the NY Post with Uncle Frank, talking politics, food, or family with Aunt Pep, and visiting other family in the area like Uncle Tony's dairy farm or playing golf with Uncle Roger and swimming at their pool.
Adulthood
By the end of his second year, which featured his one and only trip abroad (a three-month study-abroad program in London, England), Steve settled upon his major: Neurobiological Sciences. Steve earned his degree in 1993, and then entered graduate school that fall at the Department of Psychology at the University of Florida.
Steve recalls his graduate school days with particular fondness, with a huge base of wonderful friends, an idyllic climate in Gainesville, a tremendous football team (he was there when the Gators won the national championship following the 1996 season), a heady intellectual environment, a several-week research job at NASA's Cape Canaveral involving a neurobiological experiment on the Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-66), and meeting the love of his life, Rebekah McClean.
1997 was a banner year for Steve. He married Rebekah on March 1, 1997, and got his PhD in August. That same month, he and Rebekah moved to Crofton, Maryland, so that Steve could take a postdoctoral position in the Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
A second banner year for the St. Johns was 2001. First, on July 10, 2001, Rebekah and Steve had their first child, Kathryn Marie St. John. The middle name Marie is a common Elia name, and was in honor of Steve's maternal grandmother. Every day since the birth has been an absolute joy!
Second, Steve got a job as Professor of Psychology at Reed College, so the whole family packed up and headed west. In the Portland suburb of Oregon, Julia Nicole St. John was born at their home on April 26, 2004. They had bought their first home just a couple of months before, moving in on their wedding anniversary.
Tired of living so far from family, Steve took a job at Rollins College in 2006 and the family made another cross-country move. Currently the family resides in Winter Springs, Florida, just a few miles north of Orlando and close at last to Steve's parents in Atlanta and Rebekah's parents in West Palm Beach.
Steve's current passions are psychobiological research, chess, politics, Visual Basic computer programming, college football, and web page design. Steve has brought together the latter two hobbies with the Elia family website.
Rebekah Ann St. John
Rebekah Ann was born to James and Patricia McClean on January 10, 1973 in Cody, Wyoming. She moved to West Palm Beach, Florida at an early age, where she showed an early talent for drawing and painting. Rebekah enrolled at the University of Florida in 1990 to become an art major, but soon found that her talents and passions were directed at realistic artistic renderings which were out of fashion in the art department at Florida. Instead she selected Biological Illustration as her major, an interdisciplinary topic that allowed her to combine her artistic talent with her interest in zoology and botany.
Rebekah's biological illustration has been published in a number of scientific works. Over 20 full-color illustrations of insects were published in an entomology book for the lay public by Mark Hostetler called That Gunk On Your Car.
Rebekah is currently raising her daughters and is home-schooling Kathryn in kindergarten.
Synopsis of Dates
Steve's Birthday: September 9, 1971
Rebekah's Birthday: January 10, 1973
Wedding Anniversary: March 1, 1997
External Links
Photo Gallery - The Yahoo! Photos gallery
St. John Family Photos - A photo gallery of the St. John side of the family
Rollins faculty page - Steve's page at Rollins College
That Gunk On Your Car - Buy the book illustrated by Rebekah at Amazon.com!
STS-66 - The Wikipedia article on the STS-66 mission
NIH-R1 - The rats in space STS-66 project
