Posthumously awarded the Usenix Lifetime Achievement Award, Stevens was a celebrated author and consultant in computing.
Richard Stevens was born in 1951 in Luanshya, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). His father worked there for the copper industry. The family moved to Salt Lake City, Hurley, New Mexico, Washington, D.C., and Phalaborwa, South Africa. Stevens attended Fishburne Military School in Waynesboro, Virginia.
In 1973, he received a B.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan, and in 1978 an M.S. and in 1982 a Ph.D. in Systems Engineering from the University of Arizona. He moved to Tucson in 1975, where Stevens was employed at Kitt Peak National Observatory as a computer programmer until 1982. From 1982 until 1990 he served as Vice President of Computing Services at Health Systems International in New Haven, CT.
Stevens moved back to Tucson in 1990, where he pursued his career as an author and consultant. He was also an avid pilot and a part-time flight instructor during the 1970s.
Stevens died in 1999, at the age of 48. In 2000, he was posthumously awarded the Usenix Lifetime Achievement Award.
