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.