Steven Alan McCurdy

Steven Alan McCurdy, known at various times as Steve, Maurice, Roy, Uncle Steve, and Grumpa, but most importantly, Dad, passed away on February 28, 2026, leaving behind a lifetime of stories and friendships that spanned decades and neighborhoods in his beloved Oklahoma City.

Steve was born in Springfield, Missouri, to Anna Jane “AJ,” née Roberts, and Alfred Eugene “Gene” McCurdy, the fourth of five children alongside Sharon, Tim, Joe, and Teresa. When Steve was still very young, Gene died in an oilfield accident while the family was living in Odessa, Texas. The family soon moved to Oklahoma City to live near their mother’s sister, Wilma, and it was there that Steve spent nearly all of the years that followed.

Friends

Some of Steve’s friendships stretched back almost as far as memory itself.

Henry Link was Steve’s oldest friend, growing up directly across Northwest 31st Street from the McCurdy house. Legend has it that on the very day Steve’s family moved in, Henry stepped out onto the front lawn dressed in full black-hat cowboy regalia. Seeing this, three-year-old Steve ran inside and, moments later, stepped through the front door like a gunslinger throwing open the swinging doors of a Dodge City saloon, dressed in full white-hat cowboy giddyup, complete with two toy six-shooters.

What followed, according to those who claim to remember it, was a scene out of a spaghetti western, with imaginary lead flying across Northwest 31st Street. Who emerged victorious? Nobody knows, but the two remained friends for the rest of their lives.

Another of Steve’s closest friendships began a few years later.

Greg Owen first met Steve in the seventh grade at Harding Junior High after the two of them witnessed a particularly lopsided after-school fistfight between a pair of tough guys. One, as Greg put it, turned out to be considerably less tough than he believed himself to be. It was the kind of experience that sticks in the mind of a couple of thirteen-year-olds, and they spent the walk home discussing every detail.

They ended up walking home together most days that year.

Weekends often meant hamburgers, chips, and Dr. Pepper in AJ’s living room, followed by late nights watching Championship Wrestling on WKY television, hosted by the legendary Danny Williams, who always signed off with the warning, “Until next time… watch out for flying chairs!”

Steve’s bedroom eventually became the headquarters for a fictional wrestling faction known as the Dirty Assassins. The walls were decorated with slogans and warnings, and on occasion, an unfortunate sibling, usually Teresa, might wander too close and be subjected to a demonstration of the dreaded Joe McCarthy Toe Hold.

As the boys grew older, a loose circle of friends formed around them, a group Greg once described as “kindred misfits” who called themselves the Redeyes, the origin of the name best left to speculation and imagination.

Steve was not one of the charter members. For a time, he and some of the others attended high schools on opposite sides of Oklahoma City, and their paths drifted apart.

Then driver’s licenses arrived, and the city became smaller. Before long, Steve reconnected with Greg and the rest of the group. He quickly found himself welcomed into the Redeyes’ orbit and remained part of that close-knit circle.

Steve contributed many things to that group, but one of the most memorable was the occasional appearance of a mysterious French exchange student, Maurice ("Maweece") Dubois, a character born from the fake ID he carried.

Maurice would arrive unannounced at parties and gatherings and immediately begin introducing himself to anyone within earshot. His accent was ambitious. It landed somewhere between Pepe Le Pew and Foghorn Leghorn, with Oklahoma refusing to stay entirely out of the mix. The performance rarely fooled anyone for long, but it reliably entertained the Redeyes.

To this day, at least one friend still has Steve saved in his phone as Maurice.

Work

Like many people of his generation, Steve built his life through a long series of jobs and opportunities. Among the people who helped shape those years was his close friend Keith Darling. The two spent time working demanding jobs together, including welding work in the Dakotas and long stretches in the oilfields of Osage County, where the days were long, and the work was tough. Through those years, Keith helped show Steve that persistence, grit, and a willingness to shoulder whatever the day required could carry a man a long way.

Steve found himself working as a line chef and kitchen manager at the Classen Grill. During that time, he and Mary Ann Robinson married in 1982 and started a family together, welcoming their children, Andrea and Russell.

Between Steve's early jobs with City Spring, welding in the Dakotas, and being an oilfield hand in the Osage, he gained enough mechanical acumen to land a job in the maintenance dept at the OKC Zoo, a job many who knew him believe may have been his favorite. Starting as a volunteer and working his way up the ladder to the aquatic center.

Years later, Steve joined High Caliper Company, known for its “Smart Pot” commercial tree bags. There, he helped develop early manufacturing capabilities for the growing company and traveled throughout the United States and overseas, attending trade shows and working with customers. As High Caliper grew, Steve became one of the company’s more recognizable faces.

Family

If you ask Steve’s children about their favorite years growing up, many of the stories begin at the Oklahoma City Zoo.

During those years, Steve’s work there often blended naturally into family life, especially if you were Andrea or Russell.

There was a monkey named Gizmo who lived with the family for a few weeks. There were afternoons spent in a room beneath the dolphin tank, watching the dolphins swim overhead, feeding the sea lions fish, and getting to see behind the scenes in the zoo exhibits.

The zoo was a place of wonder for Steve’s kids, and many of the stories he told them in life came from those days.

Steve loved sports and rarely watched them quietly. From the sidelines, he could become a loud and enthusiastic presence, the kind of fan who experienced every moment of the game at full volume.

For the kids, many weekends were spent with their dad while their mother worked at the restaurant. Those were the years when Steve passed along many of the lessons his children would carry with them.

The three rules he liked to quote were:

Rule #1. Sh*t happens Rule #2. It happens on a daily basis. Rule #3. Remember the first 2 rules.

Steve rarely offered advice outright. He preferred to lead by example. He was the hardest-working person his children ever knew, and he had a way of talking with almost anyone he met, whether they had anything in common or not. The family liked to joke about his gift of gab.

When something good came his way, he liked to say that the universe had thrown him a bone.

Acceptance

One of Steve’s most meaningful friendships began during his time working in the Santa Fe rail yards.

There he met Loc Le, who had recently arrived in Oklahoma City as a Vietnamese refugee. The years immediately following the Vietnam War were not always welcoming to newcomers, but Steve had little interest in those attitudes and befriended Loc, which led to a lifelong friendship.

Loc went on to become a prominent Oklahoma City businessman and played a key role in growing Jimmy’s Egg into the well-known restaurant franchise it is today. Steve always spoke with pride about Loc’s success and the friendship they shared.

Next Chapter

In 2007, Steve married Beth Murphy and helped raise her children, Pete and Serena Engle.

Steve loved music and had strong opinions about it. Captain Beefheart stood firmly at the top of his list, followed closely by Frank Zappa.

He was also an avid reader. Before his illness, he read constantly, returning often to two favorites: A Confederacy of Dunces and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, both of which he revisited every year or so. He loved anything about space and the universe and spent many years reading Discover magazine.

As the years passed, Steve’s stories found a new audience in his grandchildren. To Grayson, Everett, and Augie, Grumpa hung the moon.

Steve was a passionate golfer and loved fishing. One of his favorite traditions in later years was spending Friday nights listening to live bands at the Grand House. He loved Grand House and sushi.

He believed deeply in the interconnectedness of all things and held the conviction that when life ends, our energy simply returns to the universe that created it.

A Life Remembered

In the time since Steve’s passing, friends from every chapter of his life have gathered with Andrea and Russell to remember the countless moments that made up his life.

Steve was preceded in death by his parents, Gene and AJ, his sisters Sharon McCurdy and Teresa Fowler, and his dear friend Loc Le.

He is survived by his brothers Tim and Joe McCurdy; his niece Cindy Weeks, who grew up with the family and was loved like a sister; his children Russell McCurdy and Andrea Corn; his son-in-law Clayton Corn; his grandchildren Grayson, Everett, and Augustus “Augie”; and Pete Engle and Serena Beckett; along with his many loved nieces and nephews and their children.

Steve leaves behind a lifetime of friendships, a vast collection of stories, and a list of names he carried through life: Steve, Maurice, Roy, Mac, Steve-o, Uncle Steve, and Grumpa.

But the most important of them all was… Dad.

“So long, and thanks for all the fish.” – The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

A celebration of Steve’s life will be held at 10:00 a.m. on March 30 at Mayflower Congregational Church, 3901 NW 63rd Street in Oklahoma City. All are welcome.