Stephen Ross Bynum was born July 8, 1958, in Stockton, Calif., grew up in Tucson, Arizona, raised his family in Ketchum and Hailey, Idaho, and died September 23, 2018, at St. Luke’s Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin Falls, Idaho.
Steve’s face smiles eternally in the box office of the Magic Lantern Cinemas and behind the counter at Video West. A pillar of this community, Steve was our resident expert in all things movies, music, politics and literature. He gave his friendship and mentorship liberally, bestowing unconditional love and approval on the young and the old, and he was hopelessly devoted to his wife and partner of 42 years, Heidi, and children, Alice and Liam.
Steve was raised by three women—his grandmother Alice, mother Babe, and sister KC. He spent many nights at Grandma’s house (he was her favorite), along with his seven uncles and aunts, and many cousins, while his mom worked two or three jobs at all times to provide for her daughter and son. He learned to read early, and used his voracious literacy to connect to the obscure corners of underground music, film, comics and zines, the old masters of painting, and great books, fiction and non. His friends from junior high and high school, especially Ted and Deuce Miller, reflect his interests. He was chubby, balding, emotive, and jovial from the beginning, and he had an extraordinary voice—the thing Heidi first fell in love with their senior year at Rincon High School, in Tucson.
Steve studied art at the University of Arizona, delivered The Arizona Daily Star, and was held up at gunpoint at the Circle K (the first of his nine lives). Not wanting to leave G.G. Alice until she died at 94, when Heidi came to Ketchum to visit her dad, Scotty, Steve packed up and followed, knowing next to nothing about the place. After a few months, he talked Cindy Hamlin into hiring him and started working closely with Rick Kessler at the Magic Lantern, where he connected to lifelong friend Doug Bergstrom and to our community, especially the teens he trained and guided, through a shared love of cinema. He was preoccupied with entertainment, feeling it was his duty to ensure that each of us was thoroughly amused and educated in his presence.
When Alice and Liam were born, Steve got to invent fatherhood, not having experienced it himself. For him, fatherhood was about nurturing the child’s innate creativity and loving heart. He read to his children every night off, continuing into their adulthoods. He plied them with instruments and art supplies, indulged every interest they ever expressed, and took them seriously, respecting their opinions and engaging them in lively debate. He was endlessly proud of their accomplishments, and of them.
Steve’s own creative works boggle the mind, including screenplays, cartoons and comic strips, portraits, and music anthologies; he managed bands and produced albums under the name Analog Retentive; wrote reviews, published Pork Pie Magazine and That’s Cool, That’s Trash. He was an autodidact, enthusiast, collector, negotiator, teacher. Though he hated capitalism, he was an excellent salesman, generous boss, and terrific customer (and tipper), from the Lantern to Video West to the libraries, Iconoclast, the Record Exchange, Atkinsons’, Irving’s, the post office, and the bus. He knew your name, as you knew his.
Steve and Heidi believed in being there, smoothing the path, putting others’ needs first, that “no man is a failure who has friends.” He admired givers, kindness, poignant truths, and beauty. He fell in love with Heidi for the near-perfect way she perceives others’ needs and always looks to the good. They understood each other, committed equally to their family, forged their marriage from the difficult childhoods they both had come through, and succeeded in their highest ambition of being the steadfast parents and spouses they so wanted to be.
Steve turned 60 years old this July and celebrated his 31st wedding anniversary in May. He continued to grow his entire life, including after his stroke in 2010, which left its mark on his speech and penmanship, but also taught him to be less reactive, more receptive, and (believe it or not) even more sentimental, acutely aware of the closeness of death. In his last year, he was able to rest and enjoy his home with dog Vinnie, cat Shadow, and Heidi. Not sick, but without regular employment, he was free to pursue his passions and record many of his memories as he watched the seasons change.
Steve died suddenly, days after developing acute idiopathic pancreatitis. He was surrounded by his adoring family, alert and loving to the last, as they sang, spoke, and held each other.
Steve is survived by his wife, Heidi Sharp Scott Bynum, and their children, Alice Adele and Liam Skye; his sister, Kathryn Currier (KC) Fuller and her daughter Roney; brother-in-law Craig Cooper, his wife Lydia, her mother Mary Black, and children Kayla and Will; sister-in-law Cathy Foley and her children, Chris and Jason, Jason’s wife Becca, and their children, Amelie, Scout and Griffen; and father John Bynum.
He was preceded in death by his grandmother, Alice Lundquist; mother, Edna Beryl (Babe) Bynum; in-laws Edward Scott and Margaret McGregor; brother-in-law Bob Foley; brother-in-law Larry Fuller; sister-in-law WynneDei Gayle Cooper Kruse; and Lydia’s father, Bill Black.
All are invited to celebrate Steve’s life at the Presbyterian Church of the Big Wood, in Ketchum, at 2 o’clock on Saturday, Oct. 20. Donation details to follow with the memorial announcement.