Stephen Charles Jones was born on a Tuesday, June 18, 1957, and returned to the stars on Friday, May 29, 2026, with his three girls, his oldest grandson and his wife by his side. Dad, I know you said you didn’t want an obituary, but like I told you, many times, your life and story deserve to be honored and remembered, and you knew very well I would be writing this (don’t worry, I had Kelli and Erin help too). How do you sum someone’s life up in just a few hundred words? Simple: you don’t. There’s so much I’d like to say, but there probably isn’t time, and no one would want to read it all anyway — and Dad, you’d be pissed if I went on and on, so I promise to just hit the highlights. One thing’s for certain: I wish you could have seen yourself through the eyes of others. Because even though you were simply human, flawed for certain, you were a beautiful soul who truly impacted so many lives around you. The imprint you made on this earth will long out live you in the lives of your children, grandchildren and so on.

Steve was born in Mountain View, Calif., to Joyce and Eugene Jones, the middle child between his two siblings, David and Michelle. He was born into a family of creators, and he was no different. Everything Steve touched turned to magic. With his green thumb he could make anything grow, and his art wasn’t limited to his drawings and doodles. He wrote beautiful poetry, told wild stories and could make anything with his hands. He had a truly brilliant mind, and his mother’s kindness, and the empathy she fostered in him, was felt by anyone who knew him.

Steve and his siblings grew up chasing their imaginations, creating games and art together. They came of age in a time when kids had the unstructured freedom of the outdoors, and when civil rights, women’s liberation and the environmental movement were reshaping the world around them. Steve carried all of it with him, he was always an advocate for protecting the earth’s natural resources, believing every form of life was worth protecting.

Steve worked at Safeway as a young man, through his early college years, until he graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelor’s Degree. It was also at Safeway where he met his first wife, Kathi Borges. They married in 1980 and soon welcomed three baby girls: Kelli, born in 1981, followed by Erin in 1983 and Haley in 1985. Steve simply fell in love with being a father, and he loved being a dad to each of them. Their childhood was filled with art, dancing, music and creative inspiration. He taught them how to love, how to find the magic in the world around them and he shaped who they became as they grew into adulthood. He made sure their childhood was full of camping trips, days at the ocean building sandcastles and chasing the tide, searching for agates and fossils, making sand candles, playing in the local rivers and crafting were some of his girls’ fondest memories to this day.

After graduating from San Jose State, Steve worked for Lockheed Martin until he moved his family to Humboldt in 1990, following in his mother’s footsteps to raise his girls behind the Redwood Curtain — away from the city, surrounded by the redwoods, the ocean and the rivers that define the Humboldt lifestyle. His mother had been a rare woman of her time, earning her Master’s degree and teaching at College of the Redwoods, and she instilled in Steve a deep love of education. He stepped easily into the role of teacher, beginning his teaching career at College of the Redwoods teaching AutoCAD. He often brought his girls to class with him, where they’d sit by his feet drawing on the chalkboard during his lectures, munching on giant chocolate chip cookies from the cafeteria, and in the process, he passed that same love of learning on to them. Around the same time, he worked as a drafter at Winzler and Kelly in Eureka.

Eventually Steve followed his heart and moved into teaching full time as a shop teacher at the high school level. He earned his single subject teaching credential in Computer Concepts and Applications and Industrial and Technology in 1994. He started teaching at Fortuna High School, where he taught woodshop and metal shop. He was always the coolest teacher, kids were drawn to his easy nature, his humor and his gift for helping them discover what they could build with wood and metal. He addressed every student by their last name and had a way of drawing out even the shyest kid’s inner creativity, shaping futures while having fun. From Fortuna, Steve made his way to Southern Humboldt to teach at Triple Junction High School, then later to South Fork High School, reaching even more students across the county. He had a real love for small, rural communities. Eventually he landed in Bandon, Oregon, teaching shop at Bandon High School until he got fired… I mean, until he retired in 2019. He taught high school for 25 years, and it was something he was proud of.

Steve loved kids. He found joy in using his imagination to bring happiness and magic into the lives of every child he encountered, and he was lucky enough to have three daughters who gave him nine grandchildren to share that magic with. He was also an uncle to Joe, Althea and Lexi, who all carry fond memories of him from childhood into young adulthood, playing in the redwood forest out on Redmond Road. He was, by far, the favorite uncle.

He loved watching scary movies with his girls when they were little, telling them exactly when to close their eyes and reminding them the gore was just ‘ketchup and pea soup.’ He made crafts with them, even learning to use a sewing machine so he could sew alongside them (producing some genuinely ugly scrunchies). Every childhood home had a custom built wooden multilevel tree house he built for his daughters. He taught them to weld, welding bedframes for their dolls, and showed them how to build with wood and metal using his tools. He loved getting to know all of his girls’ friends as they grew up, teasing them and handing out nicknames, always playful. He also taught his girls the meaning of forgiveness. Things weren’t always easy, but love and forgiveness kept his girls a constant in his life, and him in theirs.

Steve was the absolute best grandpa. He was there when every single one of his grandchildren was born, and he spent as much time as he could with all nine of them, forming a special connection with each one and getting to watch many of them grow into young adults. Every one of them carries their own unique memories with him, and every one of them truly believes they were his favorite. He took them fishing, his favorite spot to take them was Laird Lake, a treasure he found in Oregon. He built mystical worlds like Tent City and Box City, filling the entire living room with boxes and sheets for them to crawl through. He took them on “midnight adventures” to the parks near his house, crafted swords and shields so they could battle each other, and taught them to play (and love) chess. He was always genuinely interested in their lives, listening to their stories, always their biggest fan.

Even when life wasn’t easy, Steve remained one of the most empathetic, kindhearted people you could know. He taught his daughters, his grandchildren and his students to look past people’s mistakes, to lead with compassion and to remember that everyone is fighting a battle you may never see or understand. He knew that love shows up in the little things, that time together matters, that laughter heals and that imagination makes life richer. Kindness, he believed, is one of the greatest gifts we can give each other. He always advocated for his three girls to stay close, because he understood how much their bond would matter through life. Steve had the soul of a free spirit, a wanderer and a dreamer who loved deeply and made easy connections with people throughout his life. He loved the open road, and every summer he took real joy in traveling across the states, just him, his Jeep and his camping gear, seeking out all the beautiful places the earth had to offer.

In 2017, he married Laura Laudate. He often talked about how much he simply liked her, how special that felt to him. He grew close to Laura’s daughter Brittany during that time, coming to think of her as a bonus daughter, and considered her daughter as his tenth grandchild. After retiring in 2019, Steve and Laura moved into his Fortuna house, a home he made entirely his own, filled with his trinkets, gadgets, creations and houseplants. He always told Kale it was their house too, and he was devastated to say goodbye to Kale earlier this year. He grew a garden he took deep pride in, fed his hummingbirds, named giant pumpkin spiders and talked to his crows. Steve had a deep love of animals: he cherished his German Shepherd, Gretchen, who is buried in the garden alongside Kale’s dog Cici, and he owned countless cats and kittens over the years — bathtubs full of kittens!

Steve is continued to be held in love by his three daughters, Kelli Jones, Erin Jones and Haley Jones; his 9 grandchildren, Jaren, Kason, Rylen, & Rowen (Kelli Jones), Brannan, Addison, Jake (Erin Jones), Grayson (Haley Jones) and Karlee (Brittany Bristow); his wife Laura Laudate Jones, his step-daughter Brittany Bristow, his nephew Joe Jones, and nieces Althea Jones and Lexi Her; his son-in-laws John Jones and Dave Jackson, and bonus granddaughters, Chayslin Johnson and Gabby Pratt.

His light now shines with those who went before him, including his mom Mary Joyce Rogers, brother, David Jones, and his sweet baby granddaughter, Kale Starshine Jones-Rios. Give KK a hug from us, daddy.

Thank you for being our dad, in all your challenging moments, in all your loving moments, we would not have changed anything, because we wouldn’t be who we are today if it weren’t for who you were in life.You recently told me “Live each moment like it is your last, remember, nothing is permanent, we are all stardust. I love you to the moon and beyond. Your memories will last a lifetime, and I am grateful to have known you.”

In lieu of flowers you can send cards of remembrance (for the address, please email hjoneshumboldt@gmail.com), donate to an organization that supports youth creativity — support our local high school trades courses and spend time in nature. Our family plans to have a small private celebration of life in the near future to honor our dad.

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The obituary above was submitted on behalf of Stephen Jones’s family. The Lost Coast Outpost runs obituaries of Humboldt County residents at no charge. See guidelines here. Email news@lostcoastoutpost.com.