Stephen Paul Edquist, 52

Stephen Paul Edquist passed away on Jan. 13, 2011.

Stevie was born May 24, 1958, in Oak Park, Ill. His family moved to Pullman, Wash., when he was 3, and then lived in the beautiful Northwest. He attended junior high and high school in Boise, Idaho, graduating from Boise High. Here is where his love of skiing and fishing began.

He took a double major in philosophy and sociology with honors at Pacific University in Forest Grove, Ore.

After a job with Fish and Game in Idaho, he moved to Seattle where he worked for REI for 18 years. There he acquired tons of gear and even more friends. He climbed Mount Rainier and all the volcanos so many times, fished, kayaked, telemarked, backcountry skied and boated. He became an excellent fisherman, climber and guide.

His love of the mountains brought him to Whitefish where he went back to college to become a radiology technician. He mastered rafting, caught numerous cutthroat, skinned up Big Mountain many times and lived with a wonderful woman who stayed with him until the end.

Steve is survived by his father and stepmother, Ted and Nancy Edquist; brother, David; sister and brother-in-law, Joan and Frank Reberger; niece and nephew, Anna Edquist and Justin Reberger; cousins everywhere; and his love, Cheryl Schankin, and her children, Kylie and Spencer Jugan, and Graham, Amanda, James and Adam Beardsley. Don’t forget, Tulley his dog.

He will be greatly missed.

A celebration of life will take place beginning at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 30, at the Great Northern Bar.