Obituary of Steve Ames

STEVEN EDMUND AMES (July 25, 1940 - July 3, 2024) 

A native Californian who always made time for his family, friends, and students, Steve will be remembered for being an avid baseball fan, an educator, husband and father. Steven (Steve) Ames, 83, of Thousand Oaks, Calif. passed away peacefully on July 3, 2024, following several years of declining health. 

Born in Oakland, Calif. to Edmund and Eleanor Ames, Steve moved with his family to Contra Costa County California while in grade school. He attended Acalanes High School in Lafayette, Calif. and graduated in 1958. As a child, Steve became an avid baseball fan after attending a minor league baseball game with his father at age eight. He said that his initial spark of interest in baseball began with this first trip to see the Oakland Oaks play in 1948. This childhood experience led to his later work as a sports writer, then to the focus of his college major, teaching college journalism and advising student publications.

During high school, Steve played the drums in the band and especially liked playing jazz and big band music. He also ran cross-country and track, was in the a cappella choir, and was the baseball team manager.  Following high school, Steve started taking classes at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, Calif. In the early 1960s, he decided to take a temporary break from college and enlisted in the U.S. Army. After Basic Training, Steve was stationed at Fort Lee, Va. and was the editor of the post newspaper, The Traveller. He served for nearly three years before being honorably discharged and then continued his studies at Diablo Valley College. 

In the fall of 1965, Steve transferred to San Jose State College located in San Jose, Calif. He earned both a bachelor of arts degree in journalism in 1967 and a master of arts degree in mass communications in 1971 from San Jose State. San Jose State University, as it is called today, is the west coast’s oldest public university. Steve was proud to be a Spartan and an alumnus of San Jose State. Steve’s jobs during his college years were as a newspaper copy boy, a reporter, and a magazine writer. He was a reporter and sports editor of The Viking Reporter, the campus weekly newspaper at Diablo Valley College. Steve served on the Spartan Daily newspaper as a reporter and as editor in chief of the feature magazine Sparta Life at San Jose State. 

Steve met his wife, Carol, in San Jose, Calif., at the Wesley Foundation, a campus ministry affiliated with the Methodist Church. Excited to start their new life together, Steve and Carol were married on August 20, 1966 at Grace Methodist Church in Saratoga, Calif. The newlyweds settled down in San Jose and Steve worked as a newspaper and magazine reporter. During the first six years of their marriage, Steve and Carol lived in San Jose, Redwood City, and Fremont. They were excited to start a family of their own, and their children have meant the world to them. Their first daughter, Krista, was born in March 1969. In summer/fall 1971, they moved to Merced, Calif. so Steve could begin his teaching career at Merced College. Their second daughter, Karen, was born in July 1972.

Family memories include several cross-country road trips – although this usually meant stops to tour university campuses and going to baseball games. They attended church on a weekly basis. Steve was very proud of his two daughters and enjoyed hearing updates about their lives, careers, travels, and adventures as often as possible. A highlight of his life was walking his daughters down the aisle at their weddings. 

Steve’s professional journalism experience included general assignment newspaper reporting, feature writing, sports writing/editing, photographer, magazine staff writer, and freelance writer at various publications in Contra Costa County, Peninsula/Bay Area, Merced County, and national sports magazines. The focus of his reporting was sports writing and his work was featured in major publications, including 25 player profile stories in Baseball Digest and Football Digest from 1968 to 1974. 

In the 1970s, Steve returned to school and in 1977 received an educational doctorate from Nova Southeastern University, located in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Most of his doctorate studies were via satellite courses. While working on his doctorate, Steve continued to teach journalism classes and advise student publications at Merced College. He took great pride in being called Dr. Ames.

In 1978, an opportunity came along to be the Director of Student Publications and teach  journalism at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. The Ames Family moved from Merced to Thousand Oaks, Calif. in the summer of 1978 and Steve and Carol have considered the Conejo Valley their home ever since.

The daily commute from Thousand Oaks to Pepperdine via Malibu Canyon was sometimes an adventure – especially after a late night of advising the student publications newspaper staff as they were putting an issue of ‘The Graphic’ to bed. Steve taught journalism at Pepperdine for 13 years and advised the three student publications – newspaper, magazine, and yearbook. Under his leadership and guidance, ‘The Graphic’ newspaper received many national journalism awards throughout Steve’s time as their adviser. 

Overall, Steve taught college and university journalism and advised student publications for 38 years – including full-time at Merced College (Merced, Calif.), Pepperdine University (Malibu, Calif.), and California Lutheran University (Thousand Oaks, Calif.). In the later stages of his teaching career, Steve was also an adjunct instructor of journalism at California State University, Northridge (Northridge, Calif.), Citrus College (Glendora, Calif.), Moorpark College (Moorpark, Calif.), University of La Verne (La Verne, Calif.), American InterContinental University (Los Angeles, Calif.), California State University, Dominguez Hills (Carson, Calif.), Los Angeles Valley College (Van Nuys, Calif.), and Oxnard College (Oxnard, Calif.).

Steve’s professional affiliations were numerous and included leadership positions and speaking at conventions. He was a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and an adviser of the Pepperdine University student chapter. Steve was also a member of the Community College Journalism Association, the Society for News Design, College Media Advisers, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communications, and the Journalism Association of Community Colleges (California-Arizona).

Throughout his teaching career, Steve received many honors. These include being named College Media Advisers National Distinguished Newspaper Adviser, Four-Year Colleges/ Universities in 1985; receiving a Poynter Institute for Media Studies National Teaching Award Seminar Fellowship, Four-Year College/Universities Teachers of Graphics and Design in St. Petersburg, FL for the summer of 1986; being honored as the California Newspaper Publishers Association Journalism Teacher of the Year, Four-Year Colleges/Universities in 1987; Knight Fellowship (American Society of Newspaper Editors and American Press Institute, Reston, Va.) where he was a reporter at The Sacramento Bee for the summer of 1996 in Sacramento, Calif.; and a College Media Advisers’ Lifetime Membership in 2011. 

In 2012, Steve was inducted to the Pepperdine University Student Publications Advisers Wall at the Malibu, Calif. campus and attended a reunion event in 2017 celebrating Pepperdine University’s Student Journalism 80th Anniversary (1937-2017). Steve, who was known as both “Ace” and “Doc Ames” by his students, is remembered by countless students and colleagues as a caring influence who was very kind and helpful, a mentor, a champion, and an educator who taught his students lessons they cherish to this day. Many of his former students became friends and they stayed connected over the decades through letters, phone calls, and visits.

When the Summer Olympics came to Los Angeles in 1984, Steve applied for and was selected to be part of the Press Corps for the games. From late July through early August 1984, Steve was in the press tent for the Olympics and covered various sport competitions for the print media. He was grateful for the chance to witness this international multi-sport event as a member of the press.

In November 1989, Steve wrote and published a textbook titled, Elements of Newspaper Design. The book covered every aspect of newspaper design from typography to photography, from redesign to the specifics of a design stylebook. In his book, Steve coined the phrase Total Page Concept (TPC). By use of this term, he demonstrated the importance of placing graphic elements on a page so that they complement one another. On a newspaper page using TPC, all elements mesh. Typography, photography and illustrative art are as important to each page as are thorough writing and careful editing. His scholarly text included more than 200 examples from newspapers throughout the United States, 60 interviews and citations, plus statistical tables that show how editors use various graphic elements in their publications. The newspapers used as examples in his book were collected on one of the Ames’ Family cross-country adventures in the mid 1980s. 

After leaving the classroom, Steve semi-retired and continued writing for local papers including The Acorn in Agoura Hills, Calif. and doing freelance photography gigs. He also had more time for watching baseball games in person, which included attending spring training games in Arizona. Steve always had a fondness for trains and sought out opportunities to see them in person whenever he could – full size trains at museums, train trips, and model railroad trains. A more recent highlight with trains was an excursion in June 2022 to see the Grand Canyon again and he and Carol stayed at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel located in Williams, Arizona where Steve delighted in seeing all the trains on display at the historic Williams depot.

Steve was an active member of United Methodist Church Westlake Village, and participated in the Men's Group, served as an usher, and was part of the Communication Committee. Steve was also an active member of the Free and Accepted Masons, also known as the Masonic Lodge. He joined the Masons in December 1963 and was raised in April 1964 at the Lafayette Lodge (Acalanes No. 723). He transferred his membership to the Thousand Oaks Lodge (Conejo Valley No. 807) in 1978. For the past several years, Steve was also a member of the  Conejo Valley High Twelve Club (a social club of the Masonic Lodge) and was the High Twelve President for one year and also oversaw the club’s monthly newsletter for several years. In 2014, Steve received the Golden Veteran’s Award in recognition of being a Mason for 50 years.

While Steve was proud of his career and accomplishments, family was very important to Steve and he looked forward to visits with his daughters and their families. He enjoyed talking with them about his days as an educator, especially since both of his children also became educators. When he traveled for conferences or to see baseball games, Steve made sure to send postcards to his family with brief snippets about where he was and what he had experienced. He also stayed connected with many friends by sending them articles or other mementos he thought they would enjoy. 

His favorite holiday was Christmas and his favorite carol was “Little Drummer Boy.” Music was an important part of Steve’s life and while he didn’t continue with playing the drums after high school, he frequently attended concerts and sang church hymns. Steve also liked listening to jazz or big band songs and music played on bagpipes and harpsichord. On Sunday mornings, he sat in his usual spot along the back wall in church near the choir loft and enjoyed listening to his wife and daughters sing or ring bells in church services. 

Everyone who knew Steve was aware of how much he loved baseball. His love of baseball began with his first trip with his dad to see the Oakland Oaks play in 1948. His favorite Major League teams included the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants. Most people knew that Steve would be cheering on the Giants, or whoever was playing the Dodgers. Later in life, he also enjoyed watching minor league baseball teams, college games at Cal Lutheran University (since CLU was so close to his home), and the Conejo Oaks collegiate summer team. In addition to baseball, Steve followed and cheered on the other Bay Area sports teams – the San Francisco 49ers (football), the Golden State Warriors (basketball), and the San Jose Sharks (ice hockey).

Steve enjoyed any excuse to get out on the road and see the U.S.A. – especially to watch a major or minor league baseball game. After both Steve and Carol retired, they had memorable trips to see the Giants in San Francisco, minor league games throughout southern California, and attending spring training games in Arizona. During every game, he kept score in his personal scorebook. Steve was a collector of more than 100 baseball caps and many bobbleheads – mostly of baseball players. After the 1984 Olympics, Steve joined in the fun of trading pins and began collecting them. He had 20 frames filled with commemorative pins - from the Olympics, baseball, football, basketball, ice hockey, colleges, and from trips to a variety of places across the United States. 

He was a dog person and enjoyed having several pet dogs throughout his life. Keeping true to his Celtic and European roots, his favorite breed was Irish Terriers. The Ames family had several Irish Terriers through the years – starting with a dog named Jodi when Steve and Carol were newlyweds; a dog named Penny while Krista and Karen were growing up; Jack, an Irish Terrier they rescued; and finally a dog named Rusty in the 2000s.  

Steve became a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and enjoyed attending chapter meetings and conventions with fellow baseball enthusiasts. His SABR interests included the minor leagues and baseball parks. In the Spring 2012 issue of SABR’s The Baseball Research Journal, Steve’s article about the life of the late George “Sparky” Anderson was featured in the section about Major Leaguers and the Minors. Sparky also lived in Thousand Oaks and Steve was honored to interview him while doing research for this story. Visiting baseball parks was another passion of Steve’s and he never passed up a chance to watch a game in person. 

Steve will be remembered for his love of puns, being able to work the topic of baseball into most conversations, and the way that he connected with people. In addition, he loved sweets and said he always had room since our stomachs apparently have a ‘dessert compartment’. We’ll always imagine him saying “Indeed” one more time. We couldn’t have asked for a better husband, father, or grandparent and will miss Steve every day. His memory will live on in the hearts of all those who loved him. 

He was preceded in death by his parents, Edmund (Ed) and Eleanor Ames and is survived by his wife of 57 years, Carol, his children Krista (Lloyd) and Karen (Darren), a granddaughter Emilia, a great-grandson Logan, and other members of his extended family. Empathetic, rational, and selflessly committed to doing what was right in any situation, Steve’s life embodied the Golden Rule. He will be remembered by countless friends, Masonic Lodge brothers, and former students/colleagues. All cherish their memories of him. His soul lives on in all of us who knew him. Heaven now has a great editor, mentor, and friend. We are better people for knowing Steve. 

A private graveside service with family was held at Pierce Brothers Valley Oaks-Griffin Memorial Park in Westlake Village, Calif. in mid-July and a Celebration of Life service will be held at United Methodist Church Westlake Village on August 31, 2024 at 1 p.m. in the sanctuary.

In honor of Steve’s legacy, donations to Masons4Mitts would be greatly appreciated. This charity is a philanthropic program put on by the Masons of California to raise funds to give baseball mitts to California's underprivileged children. If you would like to contribute, please visit the link below which is specifically for the Northern California Region’s SF Sluggers team for Masons4Mitts, which works with Junior Giants and the Giants Community Fund. This charity was chosen by the family since Steve was a Mason and a lifelong San Francisco Giants fan. 

To make a charitable donation to remember Steve Ames, please visit this link for Masons4Mitts:

https://bit.ly/Masons4Mitts-Steve-Ames or https://givebutter.com/bkQyX4