Howard L. Steadman

Howard Lytle Steadman passed away Sunday, July 14, 2024, after a brief illness.

Howard was born in 1941 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to the late Raymond A. Steadman and Ella Nora (Wilmeth) Steadman.

As a young man, he loved the outdoors, including skiing, swimming, bicycling, spelunking, and hiking in his native Colorado, and spent a summer working on the Pikes Peak cog railway.

Howard graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in mathematics and went on to pursue a career in the computer industry at a time when few people could imagine the technology on which we rely today.  He was always looking to the future and excited to learn, and always had faith that technology would be used more for good than ill.

Early in his career, he was fortunate to work on some of the technology for the 1969 moon landing.  He loved to recount the story of his own father’s disbelief that we were actually going to the moon, and Howard’s response: “Well, there are a bunch of folks working on it who sure believe we are!”

After early jobs in Colorado and Boston, Howard eventually settled in Palo Alto, California, and went to work for Hewlett Packard back when “Bill” (Hewlett) and “Dave” (Packard) were still fixtures there.  He loved reminiscing about the excitement of the industry in those early days and the comraderie and company culture at HP.  He designed and built his home in the Santa Cruz Mountains largely on his own.  He met his wife, Rosemarie, in California in the early 1980s, and welcomed their only child, Anne, in 1983.

Howard loved being a father, and at a time when gender stereotypes were unfortunately more the norm, he always emphasized education and never let her think that her dreams should be limited by gender.  His daughter was always excited to put on her navy work hoodie (just like Dad’s) and help him work on the house.

Howard moved to Delaware in 1992 with his family to be closer to his wife’s family, including his “favorite Mother-in-Law” Rosie, in Norristown, Pennsylvania.  He got a kick out of his wife’s big Italian family and loved joking with “the Aunts.”

Howard enjoyed cooking and baking, always on a quest to replicate his maternal grandmother’s southern recipes—and bickering with his wife over her organized, efficient cooking versus his “dirty every pot” perfectionism.

More recently, he enjoyed spending time with his grandson, especially working on their model trains.  They also enjoyed many happy afternoons at the Auburn Heights Railroad in Yorklyn, Delaware.

Howard was proud to still be working as a software developer up until about six months ago.  Howard was a stubborn mountain man, but he had a big heart—not unlike John Wayne’s character in one of Howard’s favorite films, The Quiet Man.  To his wife and daughter, he was “Bear.”

Howard is survived by his wife of over 40 years, Rosemarie Lenzi; his daughter, Anne Steadman, and her husband, Kurt Heyman; his grandson, Wesley Dieveney; and his cat, Trina.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. Mary’s of the Assumption in Hockessin, Delaware on Monday, July 22, 2024.  A visitation will begin at 10:00 a.m., with Mass following at 11:00 a.m.  Howard will be interred at All Saints Cemetery in Wilmington, Delaware.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions to The Delaware Museum of Nature and Science, The Little Sisters of the Poor (Delaware), The American Heart Association, or a charity of your choosing.