Lyme, N.H. —
Steve’s affinity for the outdoors was such that he forsook a career at the National Park Service because he felt that it chained him to a desk. When he and his wife Margot bought their home in Lyme, he pursued a new calling as a Christmas tree farmer.
The move from Boston’s suburbs also brought him closer to his beloved White Mountains. Steve was an avid hiker from his boyhood, when his parents built a cottage in Randolph, N.H., up until his death. When he turned 80, Steve set out to summit – for the umpteenth time — all 48 of New Hampshire’s 4,000-foot peaks. Now hiking on a pair of titanium knees, he accomplished the goal in just 16 months. On his final summit, he and twenty friends drank Champagne in a soaking cold rain atop Mt. Jefferson – then dashed down as hypothermia began to set in.
Steve, the son of Drs. Stephen J. and Charlotte (Landis) Maddock of Boxford, Mass, was born in Boston on March 6, 1933. He arrived two days after the inauguration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose vision of economic and social justice would influence Steve throughout his life.
At the Putney School in Putney Vt., Steve honed his skills as a woodsman, acquired a deep love of classical music and singing, and developed a passion for skiing.
After attending Middlebury College for two years, he transferred to the University of Colorado, where he completed an A.B. in geology in 1954. He received his Master’s in geology from Harvard University in 1956 and his Ph.D. in natural resource management from the University of Michigan in 1971.
He worked as an assistant professor at North Carolina State University and then Shaw University, both in Raleigh, N.C. While in Raleigh, Steve served as President of Housing Opportunities Made Equal and as Vice President of the Wake County chapter of the North Carolina Civil Liberties Union. He was also a member of the Raleigh Oratorio Society, where he once shared a stage with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The family moved to Wayland, Mass., in 1973, when Steve became Associate Executive Director of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Boston office, coordinating the club’s conservation efforts with other environmental groups. Later he served as an environmental specialist for the North Atlantic Regional Office of the National Park Service. There, he developed the Acadia National Park Master Plan, bringing island inhabitants and visitors together to preserve and enjoy new trails and campsites on Isle Au Haut.
But city life and office spaces chafed at him, and the hills and woodlands of northern New England continued to beckon. He retired early, Margot took a job teaching math at the Richmond School in Hanover, N.H., and the couple settled in on Slate Brook Farm in Lyme where Steve began to plant, and later sell, Christmas trees.
Steve immediately immersed himself in civic life in Lyme. As chair of the town’s Transfer Station Committee, he led efforts to transform the transfer station into an operation that has served as a model for towns throughout New Hampshire. He was a longtime Selectman (1988-1994) as well as a member of the Conservation Commission, Planning Board, Budget Committee, and Home Health Agency. Steve additionally served as a town Ballot Clerk, the town Planning and Zoning Administrator, and a longtime Fire Warden. He was also the treasurer of the Lyme Gazette and the Lyme Democrats.
His midlife move to Lyme gave Steve the opportunity to pursue his many interests — notably skiing, hiking, singing, bird watching, and volunteering, which he did on four continents. He raced five times in the American Birkebeiner, a 50-kilometer ski marathon held annually in Wisconsin. He was a Stowe Derby regular, and he participated in the World Masters Championships in Lillehammer, Norway. His intimate knowledge of the White Mountains made him the natural leader (and first male member) of the “Granite Grannies,” a group that meets weekly for day hikes throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. He performed with Country and Christmas Revels, and built houses with Habitat for Humanity in Mexico in 2004, where he celebrated the victory of his cherished Boston Red Sox when they won their first World Series in his lifetime.
In addition to Margot, his wife of 61 years, Steve is survived by a son, Stephen J. Maddock and his wife Susan Maddock of South Berwick, Maine; two daughters, Elizabeth Maddock Dillon and her husband John Dillon of Boston and Katherine Ann Maddock of Wilton, N.H.; a sister, Judith Hudson of Pelham, Mass.; his grandchildren, Stephen J. Maddock of Chicago, Jenna Maddock of Sapporo, Japan, Charlotte and Sophia Dillon, both of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Lillian Sullivan of Wilton, N.H.
A memorial service is scheduled for Sunday, April 15 at 3 p.m. at the Lyme Church with a reception at Dowd’s Country Inn to follow. Donations in Steve’s memory may be made to the Randolph Mountain Club (www.randolphmountainclub.org). An online guest book is available at www.lastingmemories.com.