Jesse Carl Stepp

Loco – Funeral Services for Jesse Carl Stepp, 89, formerly of Mountain Home area, are scheduled for 10:00 AM Thursday August 5, 2021 at Dixie Cemetery with Rev. Dan Stewart officiating. Services are under the care and direction of Alexander Gray Funeral Home of Ringling.

Carl was born in Loco, Oklahoma at the family home on July 5, 1932 as the sixth child of the late Russell and Ollie Sullivan Stepp. He went to be with the Lord on Friday, July 30, 2021 in Kerrville, Texas.
Carl was proud of growing up on a farm and loved exploring and hunting in the woods and open spaces around his home with his younger brother Ray. After graduating from Mountain Home High School, he left home seeking work in the wider world and found a job as a Surveyor’s Assistant at Petty Geophysical on an oil exploration team where he worked initially in West Texas and New Mexico. Later he was promoted to Field Surveyor and worked in Colombia, South America and in Cuba. He loved the work and it eventually lead him to a Bachelor’s degree in Geology from Oklahoma State University but only after he spent two years as a Surveyor for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, stationed in Korea during the war.

After graduation from OSU, Carl received a Scholarship to attend The University of Utah to study Geophysics and was awarded his Master’s Degree in 1961. Carl, then began his career with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey working in Washington, D.C. and Boulder, CO. He was given a year off to attend Pennsylvania State University while working for the Survey and received his Ph.D. in Geophysics in 1973. In 1974 he accepted a leadership position with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission as Chief of the Seismology and Geology Group.

During these busy years, Carl had two sons, Mark and Derrill and a daughter Laura who have all brought love and much joy to his life. Through these years Carl’s favorite things to do centered on hiking, skiing and travel adventures with his children and extended family.

Carl made a big change and he and wife Paulette headed to CA in 1979 to join Fugro, an expanding engineering company in Long Beach to build and head their new geophysical and seismic business. The family moved to San Francisco two years later, where Carl worked for Woodward Clyde Consultants and in 1982 he accepted a position to head a new Seismic program at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) in Palo Alto, CA. After many challenging and interesting projects at EPRI, Carl and his wife Paulette left for Austin, TX in 1993. Carl spent another six months working for EPRI from Austin and then started his own Seismology Consulting Service, Earthquake Hazards Solutions. He enjoyed many active years working with colleagues in the U.S. and overseas, especially with the International Atomic Energy Commission in Vienna, Austria.

Keeping a promise to Paulette, Carl retired in 2015 in Kerrville, Texas where he enjoyed his favorite pastimes of reading, writing and golf. Carl wrote and published “Mountain Home Memories” a book about his High School in rural Oklahoma and has completed chapters about growing up in Oklahoma, his first job and his experiences working in Columbia, South America and the war years in Korea for his family. He especially enjoyed playing golf at Riverhill Country Club and the discussions about politics, economics, history, and more with his friends there.

Carl is survived by his wife Paulette of the home; sons, Mark Stepp of Mountain View, CA., Derrill Stepp and his wife Mary of Los Gatos, CA; and daughter Laura Stepp of Flagstaff, AZ; numerous other family and friends.

Alexander Gray Funeral Home of Ringling will be open Tuesday and Wednesday for anyone who would like to come by and pay their respect.

Condolences and remembrances may be made online at www.alexanderfuneralhome.org