Robert Stepp

Port St. Lucie, Fla. — Robert George Stepp, 84, died on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2018, at the Memory Care Unit of The Brennity in Port St. Lucie.

He was born May 27, 1933 to Rose Cables and Willis Stepp Sr. and grew up in New London. He attended Bulkeley School for three years before graduating from New London High School in 1952, where he was track team captain.

Bob was a veteran of the U.S. Navy, trained as an electronics technician, serving from 1953 to 1957. He married Isabel Chiapperini in 1958; they settled in Annapolis, Md., and raised their three children while he made a career as an engineering technician and shuttle payload manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

In 1993, Bob retired to Ocean Pines on Maryland’s Eastern Shore where he was an avid waterman. Later, he spent winters in Port St. Lucie, Fla. After being licensed and starting Stepp-Up Scuba & Wreck Diving, “Captain Bob” chartered excursions to wrecks in Maryland’s coastal waters. He was always recognized as a quintessential good neighbor and jack-ofall-trades. Visiting family or friends were enthusiastically invited to enjoy activities surrounding boating, fishing, clamming, crabbing and the beach. To his family and five grandchildren, “Poppy’s” was the favorite place to congregate.

He is predeceased by his first wife, Isabel Chiapperini Stepp; and brother, Willis Stepp.

He is survived by his wife, Vickie Smith Stepp of Port St. Lucie; his children, Bryon Stepp and wife, Karen, of Pasadena, Md., Bobbi Stepp and wife, Ann, of Elgin, Ill. and Kim Walker and husband, Gary, of Lebanon; grandchildren, Mallory Penney, Kellianne Walker, Juliet Walker, Aaron Stepp and Joshua Stepp; great-grandson, Xander Penney; sisters, Elizabeth Gottwalt, Barbara Petrizzi, Geraldine Duggan and husband, Paul, and Carole Gaynor and husband, Gerard; 19 nieces and nephews and numerous “greats.”

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Bob’s name to Alzheimer’s Association at alz.org. No public service is planned. The family extends thanks to the staff of The Brennity and Levin Homecare for the quality care they provided for over five years.