The Steve Zappe Family Page

I was married to Linda Rohbacker of Riverside, CA for 25+ years, but it ended in divorce in 2005. We had two adult children, Christopher and Rebecca, both unique and great kids. We used to own a female Australian Shepherd dog named Sydney, who died in 2009. I got married for the second (and final!) time in 2015 to Krista Ortega.

Zappe-Ortega Wedding Photo

See our family grow and change through time:

A Brief Personal History

I was born in Riverside, CA on January 5, 1953, as the third of three boys born to Margaret Schoellkopf and Orvil Zappe, both of German descent. I spent my "formative years" (3 - 13) in Cathedral City, a small community of 2000 people (then!) just outside of Palm Springs, CA. We moved back to Riverside where I attended Ramona High School (1970) and Riverside City College (1972). I spent two years in Fresno, CA attending Cal State Fresno and obtained a Bachelor's in Physics (1974). I worked for two years at the U.S. Forest Service Fire Lab in Riverside as a computer programmer before going back to graduate school at UC Riverside. During this time, I volunteered for nearly five years with the Riverside Mountain Rescue Unit. I received my Master's degree in Geological Science (1979) and swore off school.

Things happened rather quickly then - upon finishing grad school, I got married, and we moved to New Orleans, LA, in November 1979 where I worked for Shell Oil Company as an exploration geophysicist. However, culture shock hit hard, and we asked for (and received) a transfer to the Houston, TX, office in April, 1981. I spent much time exploring for oil and gas in my home state of California, as well as in the Columbia Basin of Washington, but was laid off in July 1989 as a result of the tremendous upheaval experienced by the oil industry in the late 1980's. The fact that I didn't follow the "prescribed" career path helped put the nail in my Shell coffin.

My next job was as a technical trainer, writer, and support person for Sierra Geophysics, a subsidiary of Halliburton Energy Services. They produced workstation software for the oil and gas exploration industry, and here was my first substantive dealing with the Apple Macintosh. This was a great job with opportunity for travel to Australia, Singapore, and Indonesia, but we had already set our sights on leaving Texas and moving to New Mexico. No hard feelings - I love the people of Texas and love Big Bend National Park, but I don't miss the mosquitos, fire ants, cockroaches, and humidity of Houston. Seeing some of the same signs of upheaval at Sierra Geophysics (Halliburton later dissolved the company), I quit my job in May 1993, we sold our house, and moved to Albuquerque, NM.

I held a low paying but fun job in the computer software department (pushing Macs!) at Page One Bookstore in Albuquerque for six months while waiting to get hired by the State. I started working for the New Mexico Environment Department in January 1994, and commuted to Santa Fe for five months before buying a passive solar home outside the city in the community of Eldorado. It's real quiet out here, the stars are beautiful at night, and I plan to stay here for a long time. I'm not too far from the Pecos Wilderness, where we've spent a lot of time exploring the high country. We even got the kids and the dog out on a three-day backpack trip in August '97 and climbed some of the other high peaks in the Pecos, including Truchas Peak.
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(2104) - In the years since I wrote the preceding text, much has happened... I've adjusted to being single, continued to work for the New Mexico Environment Department, see Christopher get married, see Rebecca move away and return to Santa Fe, and I'm getting ready to open a new chapter as a grandpa and retiree. There's too much to write here, but I intend to archive my past Christmas letters (written pretty faithfully since 1978) here so you can really be bored reading about my life. Be patient!

Are you bored yet? Then return to my home page!

Page modified 2/7/2017

Made on a Mac