Steve Appleton Remembered

It is an extremely rare occurrence when you see a confluence of high intelligence, advanced athletic ability, tenacious drive, fierce competitiveness, and earnest concern and compassion for others all in one person.

This was Steve Appleton in spades. From competitive (nationally ranked) collegiate tennis player to titan of the semiconductor industry to CEO of a fortune 500 company to Baja 1000 winner and regular competitor, to top level stunt pilot and jet pilot, to karate black-belt holder and champion, to motocross racer, sky diver, water skier, basketball player, multi-linguist, not to mention devoted husband and father and philanthropist, Steve did more in 51 years than most people could imagine in multiple life times. He truly lived larger than life, but at the same time demonstrated great care and concern for others.

What follows are some of my thoughts and experiences as well as things that I've learned about Steve over the years.

I was not a personal friend of Steve's or anything, but I have been an employee at Micron for about 23 years. When I started at Micron Steve was the manufacturing manager and he would come into the production area on a regular basis and hold meetings while we stood in the hallway. That's where I first met him, and I watched as he quickly rose from there to the company president just a few years later.

Over the years I had sent Steve a half dozen emails or so, and to my surprise he responded to every one (I learned that this was typical of anyone that sent him an email). He would respond even when the email written did not require a response. One time after attending an air show in Boise that he performed at doing stunt flying. His aerobatics were absolutely amazing and mind boggling to watch. I sent him an email the next day and just said that I enjoyed the air show and mentioned that the pilot in a certain plane was crazy! He responded with a simple "thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it." Some time later my dad, who is a pilot himself, happened to meet Steve's father in law. He told my dad that his son in law was a pilot and that he just had a special edition of a book about planes that he was in and on the dust jacket. I sent Steve an email and asked how I could get a copy of the book to give to my dad, and he responded "I have one here that I would be glad to give to you. What is your dad's name and I will sign it for him." He signed it and I went by his office to pick it up. He wasn't in at the time, but his secretary had it ready to give to me. I also emailed him during the short time that the board fired him telling him that it had been an honor to work under his leadership to which he thanked me for my support. He was hired back just a few days later when all the rest of the executives threatened to resign if the board didn't bring him back...

Jillian works at the library in Boise and had an experience meeting Steve at a reading event for kids, and in the short time that she had to talk to him she mentioned that she was sorry she didn't have time to ask him more questions, and he told her to send him an email and that he would be glad to answer all her questions. She sent him an email later and just thanked him for taking the time to do the reading event. He responded saying that it was his pleasure, and he set up a lunch meeting with her in a month so she could get answers to her questions- this led to Steve doing another reading event for the library. You can read her account here.

In my early years at Micron a lot of people were trying to learn Japanese since our major competitors were there. Someone that I worked with signed up for a Japanese class and it turned out that Steve was in his class, but after a couple classes Steve never came back. At one point someone finally asked why he was no longer coming to class. The answer was that the class was too slow, so Steve just decided to teach himself. A few months later he was traveling to Japan and was not using an interpreter to communicate. I suspect that he probably later learned Korean quite well too...

Micron one time had a dinner down at the Grove for people who had participated in the Micron Challenge. My wife and I walked in and there was already a bunch of people sitting at all the tables. I mentioned that it looked like there were some empty tables up at the front, so we walked up to one in the front and sat down. Shortly after we sat down I realized that there was a sign on the middle of this round table that said reserved. We were going to get up and move, but as we started to stand up someone said to us not to leave because they didn't know who else was going to show up (this turned out to be one of Micron's VP's and his wife). As we sat there Joe Parkinson came and sat down. Someone put his hand on my shoulder and I turned in time to see JR Simplot say "son, I'm JR Simplot how are you tonight." He sat next to us with his wife. Finally Steve came and sat down, and as he greeted everyone at the table he looked at me and said "Hi Roger. I don't believe that I've met your wife." I wouldn't have thought he would have known my name either, but he made me feel like I fit in at this table of executives where I was definitely out of place. It turned out to be a fun and memorable evening.

Under Steve's leadership Micron changed from a small local Boise Idaho company to a large global corporation with facilities in Idaho, Utah, California, Virginia, Singapore, Italy, Japan, Korea, and China just to name a few. His vision and leadership for Micron will not be easy to replace...

He was a scholarship tennis player for BSU and lettered every year. One year he broke his thumb just before a tournament. He cut the cast off his hand so that he would be able to compete at the event and ended up taking second in singles and first place in doubles. After that tournament and having to get the cast put back on he taught himself to play left handed so that he could compete during the rest of the season- change hands and still compete at the collegiate level!

Steve wanted to learn Karate, so in typical fashion he obtained a black belt in about half the time that it normally takes an adult to do so. He went to a tournament in somewhere like Portland and won a gold metal in his category.

Recently on a vacation trip flying though Mexico Steve and his friends landed along the beach. There was a little shack on the beach where a family was cooking shrimp and fish tacos for fishermen to make a few dollars to try and get by. Steve quietly found out information about the family and when he got home he sent them a very large care package. When a lady that worked for him with a cleaning service died he paid for all the funeral costs for the family.

I have never seen such a diverse group of speakers as those who spoke at Steve's memorial service. There was the president of SCORE national Baja off road racing organization, the governor of Idaho, the BSU president, the BSU tennis coach, A CEO of an aviation company, and the president of the national Semiconductor association. All of these people were greatly impacted by Steve and expressed how deeply people in their respective worlds would miss him.

I'm sure that my thoughts hear only begin to scratch the surface of all the peoples lives that were touched by Steve over the years, but I think anyone who had the opportunity to know him at all were blessed to see something very rare... Rest in peace Steve.

Support for Obama

I've read some reasons why some young people support Obama- Let's look at some of those here-

Health-care- Eliminated no coverage for preexisting conditions; made coverage more affordable for small businesses; raises age kids can be on parents policies; removed lifetime caps.

This one is so huge it could consume volumes, but lets consider the items listed. Why have preexisting condition clauses existed in the first place? It's simple economics- the plans get more expensive for everyone if they have to take all preexisting conditions. This does not mean there are not some ways to deal with gaps, but it does not need to take a whole national health-care to do it. The comment that it has made it more affordable for small businesses is just silly. We are talking about businesses that cannot afford to offer health-care in the first place, so how does forcing them to do so make it more affordable? What it does is causes them to go out of business or lay people off. This does not even start to take on the fact that many businesses will drop coverage all together because for many it will be more affordable to pay the fine for not offering coverage than it will be to offer coverage and those will have to be covered by the government. Now, why is it a positive thing for kids (no that's adults) to be on parents policies until they are 26??? That's just silly. What's so magic about 26? Why not 30? Why not 40? This again will cause insurance prices to go up. How is it right, or a good thing, that the government walks in to my employer and tells them that they have to keep my children on their insurance plans until they are 26? At what point should a kid (adult) earn their own way and provide for themselves? Finally the removal of lifetime caps- like preexisting conditions, this can be dealt with in other ways rather than all this national health-care. Again just removing these caps by decree will just make everyone else's rates go up. We have not even touched on the subject of what national health-care does to liberty or the fact that we can't afford it...

Ended war in Iraq and drawing war in Afghanistan to a close like he said he would.

Really? We are going to give him great credit for this? He didn't withdraw as soon as he said he would when he ran for office. Why? Because there was actually some objectives that needed to be achieved, and when done, war is supposed to end... Don't give me the tired phrase of him ending worthless wars. Did we do everything right in executing these wars? Probably not, but we did topple the Taliban which was harboring and colluding with Al Qaeda, finally got Osama, killed many terrorists outside of our country, got rid of Saddam who was funding Hamas, and fought Al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq rather than in the US.

Thinks women should have access to free preventative health-care

Why do women, or anyone else for that matter, deserve "free" health-care of any kind? Nothing is free, so if some segment of the population is being given "free" health-care someone else is paying for it. I can't find any way of justifying that as being right. No matter how good it may make you feel, why should I have to pay for someone else's health-care. Honestly, do some actually believe that there are things that can given "free" without first taking away from others?

Believes in equality for all people-

This one is so false it is laughable! How is it equality for ~47% of people to pay zero taxes and everyone else is expected to cover all the expenses of the nation? OK, that's probably not what this comment was about, but really do people actually think that conservatives do not believe in equality for all people? The difference is what is meant by equality. Conservatives believe in the equality of the Constitution that all men are created equal and should be treated equally under the law (no special treatment for some groups), and that everyone should be free in their pursuit of happiness. Obama believes that everyone should be equal in the distribution of things- no that's not quite right- He believes that a few elites, who get to have more because they are above the masses, will benevolently take (by force) the product of other peoples labor and distribute it "equally" as those most noble elites decide best how to care for the masses. My wife tells me that this statement may be referring to Obama changing his stance on gay marriage, so just a couple comments on that. I have friends that believe that supporting gay marriage is more enlightened, shows that you are not bigoted, and demonstrates your strong stance on equal rights. I don't agree with those thoughts. Aside from my religious beliefs, the definition of marriage is a union between man and woman. That definition predates our constitution, our country, and all other countries. To try and redefine the meaning of marriage is to make marriage have no meaning at all (maybe that's the end goal...).

Signed the fair pay act-

Who was not getting fair pay, who determines what is fair pay, and who's pay is now different as a result of this legislation? Just saying it doesn't seem to stand out as noteworthy...

Promoting and investing in clean energy jobs-

Do I really even need to say anything more than Solyndra? First, no matter how many times you hear the words "investing" from the president, the government does not invest. Government only spends spends spends. The debacle with with the solar company is a perfect example of why the government should never be in the "investing" business for clean energy jobs or anything else. When the government picks winners and losers politics enters into it and money is wasted. If this is left to the free market real investment dollars will be focused toward those technologies that are economically viable. When the government subsidizes someone's pet technology we end up with bankrupt companies, 100's of millions of wasted taxpayer dollars, and windmills dotting the landscape. What's wrong with windmills? Just like several decades ago when the government subsides dry up the windmills will go away. If we were serious about wanting to increase the use of clean energy we would be focusing on building more nuclear power plants (maybe I'll address that in another blog).

Supports education by giving flexibility to no child left behind and by making college aid more available

For the flexibility with "no child left behind." If it's not a good policy why not just end it altogether? Making college aid more available? That comment doesn't make any sense. He eliminated most options for college aid. Now you can only get it though the government, but you used to be able to get it through lots of other lenders as well.

He thinks millionaires and billionaires should pay their fair share of taxes like the rest of us-

Like the rest of us?? I would wager that the person that wrote this statement doesn't pay a penny of taxes, so what could they possibly be getting at? Do today's brilliant thinkers ever stop to look at reality? Just to be clear- the top 1% of wage earners in the US pay 38% of taxes and the top 5% pay 59% of taxes, so under what justification can you assert that they are not paying their fair share? Look it up for yourself... What's more insidious about this is that the liberal elites are teaching a hatred of anyone who has more by making you think that the millionaires and billionaires only got that way by somehow taking advantage of everyone else. It really is the whole reason for the existence of the occupy crowd- the gimme gimme crowd.

Despite inheriting the worst economy since the great depression he added 2.6 million private sector jobs

Why do people constantly look for ways to give failed policies a pass? The economy was not at the worst since the great depression when he "inherited" it, but it was certainly going down quickly. What did Obama do? He made it worse with all his failed government spending. There is, in recent history, a direct economic comparison. When Regan took office we were in the midst of a severe economic recession, and in some ways it was worse than what Obama faced- Regan had high unemployment, but also had to deal with double digit inflation and interest rates that were about 20%. Regan and Obama enacted policies that were poler opposites of each other and the Regan recovery was rapid and lead to one of the longest times of economic growth in the US. Obama's failed policies have lead to a very anemic recovery and the prospects are not good for future growth either. Do we really believe we can avoid the economic realities that are facing Greece? Obama's latest budget proposal will take us quickly there to join them in the ranks of defaulting countries. You think this recession was bad, just wait for what is to come if we don't change direction soon...