Steven Lester:
CLASS OF 1973
Downingtown High SchoolClass of 1973
Downingtown, PA
Steven's Story
After getting a Penn State journalism degree I went out and tried to make it as a guitarist. Seven years and a classical guitar degree later I did what all desperate unemployed people do: Join the Army. I retired from the Army in 2007 after 22 years in the bands. I taught school the following year, but quit that to try journalism. Should've stayed at the school. I married a former Rockette/Broadway dancer in '95. By then I had a 5-year-old son. (Long story.) Still married. The son, born in 1989, had a bumpy upbringing with his mom basically at war with the world and especially me, but in 2015 at age 26 he married the girl of his dreams since fifth grade. (Now pay close attention. This is your lesson from LIFE 101 CHAPTER 1: LIFE IS NOT FAIR!) They live in a house worth three times more than anything I could ever hope to afford, and in April 2022 he told me he's earning about 2x what I ever made during my best years. He's also up for a promotion to a new position that will pay him 3x more. I'm the one with two college degrees. He's the one who never finished his 3rd semester because he slept all day when he should've been in class because he'd sat up all night playing video games.
My wife and I moved to Lake Placid, NY in 2010 where she ran the dance school at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts for about seven years before retiring. I had taken a job as a music adjunct at Jefferson Community College in Watertown, NY the year before we moved three hours away to Lake Placid. Talk about a fun commute over the Adirondacks every week all through the winter (NOT!). It was the most fun job I ever had though. I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in Aug. 2014, so now I just hang around the house, work on an auto-bio of my Army career, and drive the wife crazy. I have copies of the one whole studio CD I made in my lifetime. It's all solo guitar except for the last song where Rockabilly legend Danny Gatton plays a smokin' hot solo I could never touch. We recorded it at a lesson I was t...Expand for more
aking from him in 1979. In 2003 Rolling Stone published a list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time," and Danny made the list at No. 65. I'd be happy to mail you one free of charge. If that bothers your conscience then just send me $12 for shipping and materials. The local NPR station played a different track off the CD over the air a few months ago. To those who have known me well since high school, you have my condolences because you've probably experienced a few sides to me of which I'm not especially proud. I'm sure you can find a complete list of all my human failings with Mr. Hemburger somewhere, if he's still around. But if you reach out through email or Facebook I can send you a YouTube link, however good or bad you may interpret it, that demonstrates a side to me I don't think anybody from DHS has ever experienced, and one I never thought possible back then: the one under the heading "Military Jazz Band Guitarist/Director." It's a live recording from a 2005 concert with yours truly talking between songs back when I could enunciate clearly. I had so many new guys in the band all of a sudden I couldn't remember any of their names. In terms of the music, I'm still knocked out by the amount of energy we expended on this performance because we sound like a bunch of guys who all just downed a six pack of Red Bull.
Immediately after we finished, a very nice older gentleman dressed very cleanly with highly shined shoes and so forth came right up to me and extended his hand. We just stood there for a few seconds smiling into each other's eyes and clutching hands until it finally hit me. I had just been introduced to him that morning when he looked like he'd just rolled out of bed somewhere on Skid Row. Now he was all spiffed up and looking great because his band was the featured act that evening after the dinner break. His name was Bucky Pizzarelli, a fairly well-known jazz guitarist whose life and death from the COVID pandemic in early 2020 was outlined in his NY Times obit.
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Register for Free to view all yearbooks!
Reunions
Register for Free to view all events!
Photos
