North East mourns Highway Superintendent after sudden death

MILLERTON — North East Highway Superintendent Bob Stevens died Monday, March 30, after 20 years in the role and nearly four decades with the town’s road crew.

The sudden death shocked road crew members and town officials, who said they had been speaking with the 63-year-old Millerton native the day he died and he hadn’t shown signs of illness. Town officials said a search for a replacement will start as soon as possible.

Stevens’s only son, 39-year-old Robert Stevens Jr., along with employees at the town garage and others in the community, remembered Stevens as a dedicated man with a singular passion for highway maintenance.

“It was an absolutely huge part of his life,” Robert said.

Robert Jr. said Stevens was as supportive as a father as he was dedicated to his work for the town. He recalled a week-long BMX biking trip to Camp Woodward in Pennsylvania that his father drove him to and from, making the round trip twice without a complaint.

“It didn’t matter how little or how far we were going,” Robert said. “If it was to support me, he was on. Always.”

Road crew foreman Shawn Morrison said that supportive nature extended to Stevens’s role as Highway Superintendent, where he prioritized the safety of workers and drivers above all else.

“He always said to me, ‘If you don’t feel safe doing it, then we’re not going to do it,’” Morrison said.

Morrison praised Stevens’s dedication to his post, saying he often worked long hours and weekends out of a love for the job. Winter was a favorite season, as Morrison said he was obsessive about clearing the town’s roads during snowstorms.

“A lot of people had nicknames out there for him — calling him ‘Bare-road Bob,’” Morrison said. “He was anal about his roads in the winter.”

Stevens rarely missed a day of work, for sickness or for pleasure, road crew employees and Town Supervisor Chris Kennan said. Joshua Schultz, a road crew member and Stevens’s godson, said he could remember one notable absence. “He took his son to Nashville,” Schultz said.

Photo providedBob Stevens, right, and his son, Robert Stevens Jr., pose for a photograph together. Robert remembered his father as a caring and supportive man following his death on Monday, March 30.Photo provided

Robert Jr. said he and his father traveled twice to Nashville, Tennessee — among the few trips they took together — but a third visit was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Other travel opportunities often depended on Stevens’s work at the town garage. “If it was wintertime, he’s here,” Robert said. “He’s taking care of the town.”

Sickness didn’t keep Stevens at home either. Morrison said he would work from his well-known orange pickup truck to keep from spreading colds to people.

The orange pick-up truck was a fixture around town, Supervisor Chris Kennan said. Stevens was often spotted inspecting roads across town in the recognizable truck, when it wasn’t parked at the town garage while he worked in his office.

Kennan said the town will begin a search for a new Highway Superintendent, with a committee expected to form at the Thursday, April 9, Town board meeting. He also expects the board to install a plaque at the town garage on Route 22 honoring Stevens’s service.

Kennan proposed the plaque at a special meeting of the Town Board on April 1, saying a modest display would respect Stevens’s private nature.

“I’m excited that we’re going to put a plaque on that building,” Kennan said. “It’s appropriate that there be some reflection of what he put into it.”