Obituary of Stephen Mark Hill

Stephen was born on March 29, 1944, to Mark and Irene Thomas Hill in Frankford, WV. He died August 13, 2020, in Cocoa Beach, Fl. He was preceded in death by his parents and infant sister Linda Kay. Due to his frequent health issues as a child, his parents moved to Daytona Beach when he was nine. Later his father was asked to supervise the Sherwin Williams store in Cocoa, FL. Steve graduated from Cocoa High School (now Rockledge High School) and went to Brevard Junior College (now Eastern Florida State College) and then to University of Florida. He attended King St. Baptist Church in Cocoa and was on the church softball team. He met his future wife Lynne there as her uncle was team manager. After graduating from UF, he and Lynne were married in1968 and he began teaching at his alma mater. When the school name was changed to Rockledge High, he chose to remain there and taught Business classes (Typing, Accounting, Business Math) and later computers, photography (a life-long hobby,) Web design and others for 40 years. He was always ready to help others with questions about classes, photography or just about anything else. He and Lynne got M.Ed. degrees from UCF in 1974. He was a member of the First Baptist Church of Merritt Island. He and Lynne had no children but devoted themselves to their teaching careers. They traveled ad often as the limited budget would allow and got to take photographic cruise in Prince William Sound, AK, adding a few extra days with good friends. They also took photo workshops with professional photographer in Kalispell, MT, and got some unbelievable photos of bobcats, snow leopards, cougars, bears, wolves, coyotes and so many others, including a porcupine named “Phyllis Quiller.” He was a plant lover and spent years raising orchids and just about anything else, even though his wife did not care for anything with spines, spikes, sharp edges. He was a regular customer at Rockledge Gardens Nursery. He loved just about all animals, but Lynne tried to keep him grounded to Persian cats, a hobby where they made many friends. Since Lynne was a Social Studies teacher, he also got interested in American History, especially the Civil War, and they often visited Civil War battlefields where Lynne picked up interesting tidbits that would interest her students, most of whom would never be able to visit such places. They took hundreds of photos and slides which she would show her students. The family request no flowers. Please send contributions to the Civil War Preservation Trust, a non-profit organization to preserve our history; your local food bank; your local animal shelter; or the American Diabetes Association.