With respect, admiration and gratitude, Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts mourns the passing of its beloved founder and president, Dr. Arthur D. Steffee, Jr. on his 90th birthday on Friday, August 16, in an outdoor accident at his StoneRidge residence. Link to the obituary.
On Sunday, August 18, instead of the Lincoln Hall birthday celebration planned in his honor, the sensitive virtuosity of Van Cliburn and Tchaikovsky piano competition medalist Kenny Broberg was a solace to grieving friends and audience members in works by Chopin, Medtner, Mozart, Poulenc, and Franck-Bauer.
Opening the concert, Executive Director John Soroka expressed ARCA’s appreciation for its visionary founder. Arthur’s profound love of music was his impetus to bring together a community of people to experience glorious music and art in the village he built in the Allegheny-Clarion River valley.
“Wasn’t that beautiful?” Arthur would say with tears in his eyes after a magnificent performance in Lincoln Hall. “You couldn’t hear anything better in any concert hall in the world – and we’re here, in this most beautiful place.”
He was a humble giant in our midst. A true visionary and genius inventor known as the Father of Modern Spine Surgery, Arthur was a guru to surgeons around the world, compassionate and life-changing physician affecting hundreds of thousands of patients with his inventions, servant leader, generous humanitarian, lover of classical music, appreciator of fine art and an artist himself as architect and landscape designer, botanist, pond/bog/waterfall builder, big-machine operator, animal lover, beloved human being, and friend to all he met.
Whether he was talking about tractors or Rachmaninoff, people felt they were his friend from the moment they met him. Sunday’s concert program included an insert with the poem “Life’s Greatest Gifts” by Dr. Ralph Bingham Cloward, an American neurosurgeon best known for his innovations in spinal neurosurgery. Arthur read the poem at special gatherings and had it printed to give to friends. When reading the last few lines, his voice would break, with tears in his eyes.
Life’s Greatest Gifts
When you get on and you’ve lived a lot
and the blood in your veins isn’t quite so hot
and your eyes are dimmer then they were,
and the page on the book has a misty blur,
strange as the case may seem to be,
then is the time you’ll clearly see.
You’ll see yourself as you truly are|
when you’ve lived a lot and you’ve travelled far:
when your strength gives out and your muscles tire
you’ll see the folly of mad desires;
you’ll see what then to your eyes had hid
– the countless trivial things you did.
For often the blindest are the youthful eyes;
age must come e’re man grows wise.
Youth makes much of the mountain peaks.
the strife for fame and the goal he seeks.
but age sits down with the setting sun
And enjoys the useful deed he’s done.
You’ll sigh for the friends, who were cast aside,
with a hasty word or a show of pride,
and you’ll laugh at the medals which you prize,
because you will see them through different eyes.
You’ll understand how little they really meant,
For which so much of your strength was spent.
You’ll see as always an old man sees,
that waves die down with the fading breeze
and the pomps of life never last for long,
the great sink back to the common throng,
but you’ll understand when the struggle ends
that the finest gifts in life are friends!
Ralph B. Cloward
Also in the concert program insert was the text to the Finale of Mahler’s Second Symphony, “The Resurrection”. For the past two months since the delivery to his StoneRidge barn of top-of-line Wilson audio speakers, Arthur had been listening to the transcendent Mahler Finale nearly every day. He would turn up the volume and with tears in his eyes quote the words Mahler wrote as its conclusion. “I shall die, so as to live… What you have conquered will bear you to God.”
Surely as he entered those pearly gates the closing measures of the Mahler Finale were playing with cosmic reinforcement.
Here is the 2004 performance of the Finale of Mahler’s Second Symphony – “The Resurrection” – performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra for the Pope in the Vatican: “A Celebration of Faiths: The Papal Concert of Reconciliation” and text that follows.
Mahler Second Symphony – The Resurrection, Finale Text
Arise, yes, you will arise from the dead,
My dust, after a short rest!
Eternal life!
Will be given you by Him who called you.
To bloom again are you sown.
The lord of the harvest goes
And gathers the sheaves,
Us who have died.
—FRIEDRICH KLOPSTOCK
O believe, my heart, oh believe,
Nothing will be lost to you!
Everything is yours that you have desired,
Yours, what you have loved, what you have struggled for.
O believe,
You were not born in vain,
Have not lived in vain, suffered in vain!
What was created must perish,
What has perished must rise again.
Tremble no more!
Prepare yourself to live!
O Sorrow, all-penetrating!
I have been wrested away from you!
O Death, all-conquering!
Now you are conquered!
With wings that I won
In the passionate strivings of love
I shall mount
To the light to which no sight has penetrated.
I shall die, so as to live!
Arise, yes, you will arise from the dead,
My heart, in an instant!
What you have conquered
Will bear you to God.
—GUSTAV MAHLER
A Way of Life
Since Arthur’s passing, his wife Marybeth Hinds Steffee has received an outpouring of condolences and affection from friends from all walks of life and across the globe who were touched by his compassion, kindness and generosity beyond any ever known.
Arthur was loved by many – because he loved them – and they felt it in his presence. He loved humanity in his dedication to serve and make a difference. Whether he was talking about heavy equipment, trees or music that inspired him – or whether he had spoken to you on a few occasions or treasured your friendship for years – Arthur impacted lives.
At the intermission of the Sunday, August 18 ARCA concert, grieving acquaintances and longtime friends expressed their loss:
“I just met him but felt like I’ve known him all my life.”
“He always took so much time with me.”
“When he looked at you and listened, you felt you were the only person in the world.”
“He always made me want to be the best I could be.”
A distinguished PhD scientist and close friend in a breaking voice said, “I loved him” and wept.
As a servant leader, Arthur already had done-it-all, and was not seeking power for himself. With any job that needed to be done, Arthur was there with you, rolling up his sleeves and making it happen. It wasn’t about his glory. He was dedicated to living each day to its fullest and doing something kind for those around him to empower them – as he would say, “to make some difference with my life.”
His life philosophy was molded on the principles of Sir Dr. William Osler, the knighted Canadian physician known as the “Father of Modern Medicine” who was a graduate of McGill University (Arthur Steffee’s alma mater) and one of the four founding physicians of John Hopkins Hospital. Osler taught his students to be compassionate and to listen to patients with empathy. Arthur brought that to every person to whom he quietly listened.
Arthur carried with him the little book he had received when he graduated from McGill Medical School, which was among the few remnants of the tragic house fire in 1961 that took the lives of his wife and three young children. It contained the text of the address that Osler had delivered to the Yale student body on April 21, 1913 – A Way of Life – in which each day he recommended to live for the day only… in strict 24-hour increments, “letting neither yesterday nor tomorrow be a worry today” – to find “peace in the moment.”
“The way of life that I preach is a habit to be acquired gradually by long and steady repetition: It is the practice of living for the day only, and for the day’s work; Life in day-tight compartments. Undress your soul at night; not by self-examination, but by shedding, as you do your garments, the daily sins, whether of omission or of commission, and you will wake a free man, with a new life. The quiet life in day-tight compartments will help you to bear your own and others’ burdens with a light heart.”
Living this philosophy would be a blessing to Arthur to overcome tragedy and loss in his life.
Arthur shared with friends about living each day to the fullest in what Osler referred to as “day-tight-compartments.” Every evening at sunset, he and his wife Marybeth would ride to the top of StoneRidge to Sunset Point with its view to the west and landscaped solar calendar – and say a prayer to thank God for their day and to ask for “just one more.”
To his physician friends and colleagues, Arthur gave Osler’s “A Way of Life” and personally inscribed the book – just as he gave framed copies of Cloward’s “Life’s Greatest Gifts.”
Legendary Generosity
To many, Arthur’s generosity was beyond anything they had ever known. He gave with no expectation of return, but always was touched by a “thank you”.
The stories of Arthur’s generosity are legendary. And he was constantly giving. His thoughtful gifts were ideally suited to the person’s dream, need or unperceived opportunity. They ranged from buying someone a house to giving a pick up and ATV, hot tub, antique lamp, painting or hen of the woods mushrooms he had just picked – to giving a wall of rocks or showing up with big equipment to build someone a waterfall – to giving gift-wrapped whole smoked salmons at Christmas (to 30 of his close friends) – to delivering cinnamon ferns from his forest, planting a row of boxwoods from his gardens, or sharing a special plant or Franklinia tree that he also had just purchased for himself.
The epitome of philanthropy – from the heart – were his gifts to ARCA including paying for Lincoln Hall’s restoration and buying its seven-foot Steinway piano and Wurlitzer theatre organ. And this just scratches the surface.
Similarly, his hospitality had no equal – both in the mansion at RiverStone Farm with his late wife Patricia and in recent years in the “barn”/guest house in Arthur and Marybeth’s StoneRidge estate overlooking the beautiful Allegheny River valley.
There they welcomed community friends, medical colleagues from around the world, Oil City High School classmates and ARCA members for donor receptions and encore performances by pianists after Lincoln Hall concerts.
Over the years, Amish friends from Ohio – on whose parent’s spine Arthur had operated in exchange for ‘a load of hay’ – would come and stay for a week to help with farm projects or hunt.
Arthur’s kindnesses were given without measure or expectation – in an unconditional way – which is among the reasons many experienced him as a surrogate brother, father or grandfather.
Life Interventions and Family
The roots of Arthur Steffee’s generosity may be seen in the life intervention he received from a benefactor in his hometown of Oil City who provided funding for Arthur and his brother Bill to go to medical school – which loan he later repaid. It made all the difference – a “difference” that Arthur continued to make in the lives of others.
Arthur was the oldest of three children, including siblings Bill and Susan. In an interview with Ohio family practice physician Nicholas Young (who is writing a book about the history of Foxburg) Arthur shared, “My mother was a schoolteacher. My father was a teller in the bank. My dad started in the bank the day he graduated from high school, and he stayed in that till he retired in Oil City.”
The ethical values of his parents were the foundation of Arthur’s character. His younger sister Susan Steffee said of her father, “My father lived the ten commandments. He lived them.”
The children were encouraged to be all they could be. Arthur participated in track and field in both high school and college. A friend from Oil City who competed against him in college said, “When Art ran the hurdles, it was like he was stepping over them. He had legs up to here!”
Arthur’s love of music was nurtured early. He played violin from 10 years of age as a member of the Juvenile and later the Jr. Schubert Club of Oil City, performing monthly in club recitals. He also played flute and piccolo in two bands: In the American Legion band with which he toured to New York City and in the high school band, twice advancing to play in the Pennsylvania “state” orchestra and also serving as student conductor of the band.
“People ask me, why did you go to medical school? In fact, my mother told me and my brother Bill, ‘you have to go to medical school.’ And I knew how to follow directions.”
Arthur noted, “You know my parents couldn’t afford to send us to school. I owe my medical education to a dentist in Oil City – Dr. McAndrews. He came up with the cash for both my brother and me to go to medical school. When it was all said and done and over with, I paid it back actually. But times were different. You know, how much tuition was at McGill? $740 for Americans. $500 if you were Canadian. For the full year.”
After graduating from Oil City High School in 1952, Arthur went to Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania and graduated in 1956 before attending McGill University in Montreal, where in 1960 he received the M.D.,C.M. (Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery) degree.
Arthur married his childhood sweetheart, Edie Hodgkinson, whom he met in ninth grade and whose father was a founding member of the Cleveland Clinic and inspiration to him to enter the medical field. Arthur completed his internship and rotating residency at the Cleveland Clinic and general surgery residency at St. Vincent Charity Hospital. After the passing in 1961 of his wife Edie Hodgkinson Steffee and three children – David, Michael and John Peter, he enlisted in the Army.
From 1962-64, he served as a Captain in the US Army in Orthopedic Service. He was stationed at Fort Belvoir, VA, where he met his late wife, Billie Howland Steffee. They had two children – David and Sarah, the latter who preceded him in death. He is survived by his son David (wife Laura) and three grandchildren – Dawson, Sydney and Abby.
His brother, Bill also went to Allegheny College in Meadville and to the University of Pennsylvania medical school, later earned a Ph.D. in physics from MIT, taught at Boston University, then joined Arthur at St. Vincent Charity Hospital as Director of Medicine before heading Arthur’s spinal implant company, Acromed.
Arthur and Bill Steffee together endowed the Steffee Hall of Life Sciences at their alma mater, Allegheny College.
Steffee’s younger sister Susan attended Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University, earned a degree in interior decorating. She spent most of her life in Chicago, before returning to Foxburg where she lived in the house Arthur restored for her on the old Harvey farm with the breathtaking view of The Allegheny River valley.
Another life intervention came from his sister Susan. In her work for Gates and Burns Realty, Susan met Marybeth Hinds from Ohio and Clarington, PA who was looking for a property along the Allegheny River near Foxburg. Susan told her, “You want my house,” which had just been put on the market.
Without meeting Arthur, in 2009 Marybeth subsequently bought the Harvey property he’d renovated, with all transactions taking place through attorneys.
Some time after the passing of Arthur’s long-time surgical nurse and wife of twenty years, Patricia Bishop Steffee, it was Susan who served as matchmaker, introducing her brother to Marybeth. And a match it was. As Arthur had built a village including a restaurant, when Marybeth moved to Clarington and found there were no restaurants, she opened the Iron Mountain Grille, now Cousin Basils, at the threshold of Cook Forest.
Their companionship led to marriage and in August of 2019, one week after Arthur and Marybeth were married, they celebrated his 85th birthday, sharing the evening with a group of close friends.
Twenty years after reclaiming the Harvey estate, Arthur joined Marybeth in her home that he had renovated for his sister with its stunning view of the Allegheny River valley that they would later name StoneRidge.
While Marybeth had made significant improvements to the house, Arthur built a barn/guest house and put his brilliant artistic vision and seasoned architectural landscaping experience to work with his impressive earth moving equipment.
Arthur “remolded the top of a mountain” doing what he loved: Moving rocks, building ponds and waterfalls, planting trees of all kinds, creating flowering rock gardens, and constructing a guest house ‘barn’ that inspires awe with its stained-glass windows, central ‘tree’ staircase and rustically elegant furnishings.
Many think that StoneRidge – with its spectacular barn/guest house, infinity pond, bog with aquatic plants to purify the pond water, waterfall cascading down from the top of the ridge, Sunset point, rock gardens and plantings – is more spectacular than RiverStone Farm with its gorgeous view down the Allegheny River valley… This was Arthur’s last artistic creation.
Another life intervention would be kismet related to RiverStone farm and Foxburg. After Arthur and Marybeth had married and he was selling RiverStone, his long-time surgical partner at St. Vincent Charity Hospital in Cleveland and close personal friend, Dr. Louis Keppler, with his wife Cindy, introduced Arthur to Saji and Shannon Daniel.
While many had been interested in purchasing the place, none shared Arthur’s vision for the estate and the village as did Saji Daniel. In time, the Daniels purchased both the estate and Arthur’s downtown businesses, recently renovating the hotel and winery… carrying forward his dream and continuing his legacy – to bring the beauty of the Allegheny-Clarion River valley and all it offers to those seeking its tranquility and inspiration.
The Father of Modern Spine Surgery
As the inspirational Sir William Osler was called “The Father of Modern Medicine”, Arthur Steffee was known as “The Father of Modern Spine Surgery”.
In 2023, when he was awarded the Cleveland Clinic Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumnus Award, Arthur’s one-time resident and longtime surgical partner, Dr. Louis Keppler, said of his pedicle screw plate invention, “It’s the standard of care now. He changed the way spinal surgery is done throughout the entire world.”
Speaking of Art’s vision and creativity in his obituary, Louis Keppler related, “The world lost a physician, an inventor, a pilot, a botanist, an architect and a heavy equipment operator. He was an enthusiastic creator. If Art “saw” it in his mind, it somehow ended up being built. He took great joy in sharing these “projects” with his friends. His work here is done but we can be sure that heaven needs some ponds built.”
Robin Young, founder and published of Orthopedics This Week, following the passing of “one of the founding fathers and most consequential surgeons in spine surgery”, related his legacy and contribution to spinal medicine in an article on August 19, 2024:
“His passing is a monumental event in the history of orthopedics and spine care. Arthur Steffee leaves behind an unmatched legacy of service, innovation and vision. Surgeons in Asia, Latin America, Australia, Europe, and North America—learned the modern practice of spine surgery from him. They, in turn, trained other surgeons and collectively, restored millions of patients to productive lives.”
In a 2020 article, Young published patients’ letters about the difference that Arthur had made in their lives, including this from a patient on whom he had operated when they were 16 years of age:
“I was one of the patients that Dr. Steffee had in the ’80s. He actually traveled to Omaha, Nebraska to do the surgery. For me it was a process of three surgeries, and yes, a body cast. I had a fourth surgery when I slipped on the ice. I traveled to Cleveland and Dr. Steffee performed the surgery. I haven’t had any problems in nearly 35 years. I love Dr. Steffee. I was 16 years old when I had the surgeries and he gave me my life back.”
Arthur fulfilled the second principle by which he lived his life, thousands of times over: “To make some difference with your life”, as inspired by a quote of Leo Rosten.
“The purpose of life is not to be happy—but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you lived at all.” (Rosten)
In the YouTube video interview, Some Difference, Arthur said, “It doesn’t matter how big the difference is. It can be infinitesimally small… some difference that you were here at all.”
This man who brought spinal surgery out of the Dark Ages with his inventions lived courageously and fought for truth in the face of resistance from the FDA and governmental agencies. He was wrongfully persecuted for his inventions in spinal surgery – as have been innovators that challenged the medical orthodoxy.
From 1847 into the first half of the twentieth century, according to the American Medical Association, physicians could not hold a patent for any surgical instrument or advertise them: Meaning that physicians were not to prosper from their inventions.
Robin Young in Orthopedics this Week reported:
“In 1990, FDA commissioner David Kessler launched an investigation of AcroMed and Dr. Steffee. In 1992, AcroMed received a warning from the FDA to stop promoting its spinal implants.
They were accused of making a profit. Seriously.
That all ended when pedicle screws were down-classified by the FDA in the late 1990s.”
Within weeks of the sale of Acromed to DuPuy, a division of Johnson & Johnson, the company received from the FDA what Arthur had battled to secure for fifteen years. In 1999, all related cases were dismissed for lack of evidence.
Arthur Steffee was punished for doing something new and as a result has “seen more and endured more in his efforts to innovate on behalf of patients.”
What might have embittered another man – with forbearance and endurance Arthur rose another day – in a day-tight-compartment – to create and bring healing and beauty to the world.
After retiring from surgery and moving to Foxburg, Arthur’s kindness and commitment to make a difference continued as he counseled spinal patients – albeit not his own.
Friends in need of relief from debilitating back pain who had gone to a physician for diagnostics would bring him their X-rays to review. Despite their fears, they found resolve in his confidence as this brilliant surgeon explained how their surgery would be successful… with the device he had invented.
When insurance permitted, he would counsel patients to go to Cleveland to be operated on by his former partner, Dr. Louis Keppler – or to a surgeon and practice he knew in Pittsburgh. When possible, not only would he accompany them but also suit up in scrubs and observe the surgery.
Sharing his wisdom with the next generation in 2010 when he received an honorary Doctor of Public Service award from Clarion University (PennWest) for his service as a retired surgeon and Clarion County leader in community and economic development, Arthur encouraged students at commencement to overcome the resistance to creativity and innovation:
“Every time you have a good idea there are 15 people going to be around you saying, don’t do it. It’s not going to work. The only way you can really get around that is to believe in yourself. If you don’t have a belief in yourself, its very difficult to get other people to believe in you. The best thing to do would be to stand tall, stick your shoulders back, and go ahead and do what you need to do.”
A surgeon who just went ahead and did what he needed to do to make a difference, Art Steffee did many ‘firsts”; he did the first total hip in the state of Ohio and in his early career created a system of finger joints. In a 2022 interview With Art Steffee on His Mountaintop, he shared personal insights about his grandfather’s home-style inventions and his own delight in fabricating solutions to clinical problems that led to his invention of the spinal pedicle screw plate. Robin Young described the journey of the ‘kid from Oil City’:
“Over the years, in 35 countries – Dr. Steffee circumnavigated the globe, by his counting, five times—teaching, lecturing and training a generation of spine and neurosurgeons. And the company he founded, which was the first spinal implant manufacturer in the United States, is now a division of the largest medical company in the world, Johnson & Johnson.
For the son of a teacher and bank teller, it’s been a remarkable climb to the top of the mountain.”
Arthur’s Vision and Foxburg
After retiring from surgery and with the sale of Acromed, Arthur wanted to move back to his roots in the Allegheny River valley. When he and Patricia were unsuccessful in purchasing the RiverRidge estate in his hometown of Oil City, his sights moved downriver to Foxburg.
For anyone in the mid-1990’s viewing the weedy, vacant bluff overlooking the Allegheny from the muddy parking lot of Foxburg’s small Silver Fox diner, there was no way to conceive of a village being built on the riverbank in less than ten years – let alone five businesses that would revitalize the economy, provide jobs and create a tourist destination on the banks of the Allegheny River.
And no one could have imagined that Foxburg would have an arts center presenting regionally acclaimed and world-renowned artists at the pinnacle of their careers performing in what at that time was an abandoned medical center on the top floor of the Foxburg Free Library.
But Arthur Steffee did – and with his genius-vision, generosity, and unbridled passion for creativity, he made it happen.
Buying the original Fox estate in December of 1997, Arthur and his late wife Patricia began restoring the original vision of the Fox family, renovating the mansion as well as revitalizing the long-time forgotten downtown Foxburg.
Within four years they had transformed the mansion – opening up the floors with a central staircase which spiraled at the top to an enclosed widow’s walk, utilizing a multitude of rare woods, installing masterful cabinetry, and adding a large conservatory overlooking the pond. Each room was more stunning than the last.
The Frank Furness carriage house and original H-Barns and gardens were restored and Arthur built numerous outbuildings including a greenhouse, dovecote, and peacock house as well as homes for Patricia’s family members — always working himself alongside the craftsmen and builders.
First-time visitors taking the long drive back to the mansion on RiverStone Farm frequently would mistake the workman in a plaid shirt and work pants sitting on a piece of equipment as the maintenance man and ask him, “Can you tell me where I might find Dr. Steffee?” He enjoyed shining a welcoming grin from ear to ear and saying, “I’m Art Steffee.”
At the same time, to bring jobs and economic revitalization into the area, Arthur and Patricia also built the village with businesses including The Allegheny Grille, Foxburg Inn, and Foxburg Pizza along the riverbank – and established Foxburg Wine Cellars in the previous Silver Fox diner location. They also restored the historic Fox family office building which served as a gift shop and eventually would became ARCA’s Red Brick Gallery and Gift Shop.
His Dream of Music and Art in the Valley
Inspired by Blossom Music Festival near Cleveland and passionate for classical music, Arthur dreamt of creating an arts center away from an urban setting that would attract people who were equally drawn by the excellence of the music and art as they were by the beauty of the river valley – cultural tourists.
While he knew that a performing arts venue and gallery in Foxburg would contribute to the economy, bringing customers into his restaurants and staying at the hotel, more motivating was his love of music and appreciation of the visual arts. He and Patricia sought to make the arts the hub of the larger wheel of community they were creating. It would benefit the quality of life for residents, draw retirees to move there – and lure young people to return there. They were building a community of like-minded people – a family of friends.
In 2004, a group of Board members joined Arthur and Patricia in founding Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts. The Steffees underwrote the renovation of the derelict, historic space – a long defunct medical center on the top floor of the Foxburg Free Library with cubicles and a dropped ceiling which had obscured the 1909 stage and performance space.
The original Board members with Executive Director Adam Weiss transformed the space into the charming and acoustically transparent Lincoln Hall, ARCA’s main performance venue. Arthur gifted ARCA a seven-foot Steinway piano and McKissick Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ which he purchased from Paul and Sally McKissick.
At the inaugural concerts in the fall of 2006, the expectant and enthusiastic Arthur greeted guests on the patio outside the Lincoln Hall entrance.
While Arthur always made it clear that his preference was for classical piano, chamber music and Wurlitzer concerts, from the beginning a broad spectrum of idioms was presented including bluegrass, jazz, R&B Soul, Celtic music and cabaret.
In 2011, Arthur and Patricia’s friend Donna Edmonds – botanical water colorist and former Westinghouse Sr. Vice President – accepted the invitation of then executive director, Drew Orient, to form an artist cooperative and create the Red Brick Gallery and Gift Shop on Main Street.
In its early years, the Steffees opened RiverStone Farm to ARCA festivals – attracting a community of friends who also loved nature. Arthur was actively involved in all of them – from Dogwood Days with patrons driving through groves of dogwoods in full bloom to bird watching and nature tours in the richly populated woods, for which Arthur served as a guide with his botanical knowledge of plants and trees.
Owl Prowls took people through the forest on a flatbed at twilight with strategic stops to make hooting owl calls to attract a response, and after weeks of collecting sap from RiverStone maple trees, Arthur would boil the syrup in his sugar shack, and at the Maple Syrup Festival breakfast could be found flipping pancakes.
For five years, the Scottish Festival filled the grounds of RiverStone Farm with sheep dog demonstrations and obedience shows, outdoor concerts, soccer clinics, bagpipe and dancing competitions as well as Scottish athletic competitions, for which Arthur and Patricia handed out prizes. Arthur had been to a Scottish Festival and thought RiverStone would be a perfect venue for the games – and it was!
Most generous for Arthur and Patricia was opening their home and RiverStone grounds to several house tours to benefit non-profit organizations in the region as well as ARCA on two occasions – as groups of people went through all the rooms of their home with docents in each describing the history and furnishings.
For ARCA’s house tour on Saturday, July 14, 2012, Arthur and Patricia greeted them under their porte-cochère before guests roamed the grounds, the carriage museum in the H-barns and toured the house. The 9 foot Steinway was played in the music room, Tom and Nancy Hovis took guests on horse-drawn carriage rides, a silent auction took place in the carriage house and a band performed outside as people enjoyed a catered lunch under a tent.
For the first seven years, ARCA entertainers, bands and artists were primarily from or in residencies in the greater Pittsburgh region, including members of the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Alexander String Quartet, and piano competition winners teaching in western Pennsylvania universities – from Celtic musicians Carnival of Souls and Cahal Dunne, Tom Roberts, The Allegheny Drifters, cabaret singer Dane Vannatter plus jazz musicians Harold Betters, John Burgh and jazz & poetry events with Catro – to the Pittsburgh Symphony Brass, classical pianists Alec Chien, David Allen Wehr and Gayle Martin, and theatre organists from around the country.
Over the years, Arthur and Patricia were joined by more and more of the community as audience members – and Member contributors – who were more than “donors” in the strict sense.
ARCA members and donors were their friends. Some had had a tour of RiverStone and supper at the Steffee’s dining room table, had been invited to join them for a concert, and subsequently had become a member and a fan of ARCA and all it was doing to bring music and art to the valley. It was from the heart – and it was a “natural.” This was their community of friends that Arthur had envisioned.
From the beginning of ARCA, Arthur and Patricia opened RiverStone to audience members and artists following special concerts. They generously hosted a sumptuous dinner in the mansion’s conservatory followed by a concert – which was scheduled in January as a thank you to ARCA Gold level donors – their family of friends.
This donor appreciation event continues to this day – but after Patricia passed and Arthur sold RiverStone, the dinner was moved to September in The Allegheny Grille event tent and subsequently the pavilion.
As Arthur and Marybeth made their home together at StoneRidge and built their extraordinary “barn”, they graciously opened their home for an appreciation supper for Platinum donors, including a performance on their seven-foot Steinway in 2023 by David Allen Wehr and in 2024 by Alec Chien. Once again ARCA’s group of major donors – their ‘friends’ – continued to grow.
Arthur and Marybeth also welcomed friends and audience members to lavish receptions after concerts, often with encore performances by the artist – as with the Van Cliburn medalist Sean Chen. Arthur was in his element – with piano music soaring from their extraordinary Steinway in his barn with the acoustics of a concert hall – enjoying time with performers, whose artistic achievements he greatly admired.
In the first eight years, ARCA’s administrative duties were carried out primarily by Board members. Patricia Steffee served as Treasurer, processing all contributions and working closely with Nancy Hovis, as Secretary, who managed membership. Nancy and her husband Tom Hovis joined the Steffees and ARCA Board members in producing ARCA events when Drew Orient was Executive Director.
Arthur and Patricia were grateful that eleven years ago Board member Barbara Bott and Robert Jennings made a significant gift over three years to help ARCA broaden its base of support and build a professional organization.
In 2013, ARCA board member John Soroka – retired Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Principal Percussionist – was hired as Executive Director and was joined by his wife Katherine (also on the board), a former performing arts executive with the New York Philharmonic, Executive Director of the Grand Teton Music Festival and on the faculty and administration of Manhattan School of Music, who volunteered with artistic programming, marketing, development and education. Katherine had sung an inaugural concert in November 2006 and over the years numerous recitals and chamber music performances in Lincoln Hall as well as house concerts for Arthur.
The couple shared Arthur’s vision and commitment to bring inspiring music and art to this most beautiful place… what music festivals all over the world offer – that audiences can experience right here in the beautiful Allegheny-Clarion River valley.
Arthur enjoyed being a partner in artistic decision-making for classical concerts as Katherine developed the roster of artists for the coming season – reviewing lists of classical artists and YouTube videos she presented.
Arthur loved richly melodic Romantic music. He especially enjoyed chamber music and pianists, including Lang Lang, whose YouTube videos sustained him after Patricia’s passing and whom he had seen perform twice in recent years with the Cleveland and Pittsburgh orchestras.
This world renowned spinal surgeon and visionary landscape designer not only had superb musical taste but also phenomenal ears – with full audio recall, hearing multi-dimensional chamber and orchestral music in his head.
He was moved by Dvorak performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Players and Alexander String Quartet (who also performed post-concert encores at RiverStone) and chamber music with pianist David Allen Wehr and musicians from his Music on the Bluff series at Duquesne University.
Santander Competition gold medalist, David Allen Wehr’s performance of Rachmaninoff two piano music with Clara Haskil Competition first prize winner Cynthia Raim was Arthur’s bliss. Their award winning CD of the Rachmaninoff Suites No. 1 and No. 2, the Record Guide’s 1998 Recording of the Year, was his favorite on his new Wilson speakers in the StoneRidge barn. With tears in his eyes he would point out how their nuanced artistic performance was matched by superlative audio engineering, saying, “that is better than if you were sitting in the concert hall,” which experience he also had loved when they performed the Rachmaninoff Suites in Lincoln Hall.
As the budget increased in recent years, the roster of performers continued to evolve – not only bringing back ARCA audience favorites plus pianist Nathan Carterette, cabaret artists Judi Figel, Tania Grubbs and Chantal Joseph, Tom Panei, Shane Alexander, and groups like Attack Theatre, C Street Brass, Akropolis Reed Quintet, ARIA412, Pure Gold, and the River City Brass, but also artists having national and international reputations, such as Rachmaninoff two piano concerts with David Allen Wehr and Cynthia Raim; international piano competition medalists Sean Chen, Kenny Broberg, and Sean Kennard; and celebrated pianist and recording artist Barbara Nissman.
As the artistic quality of concerts continued to soar, so did the number of sold out, enthusiastic audiences increase.
Arthur thoroughly enjoyed the classical cross-over group TAKE3, their eclectic repertoire ‘From Rock to Bach’ – and their thrilling virtuosity, energy and showmanship in popular and classical ‘mash-up’ repertoire including movie music, which Arthur loved.
In other genres, sold out audiences were dazzled by national touring bands such as bluegrass groups Joe Mullins and the Radio Ramblers, Becky Buller, Special Consensus, High Fidelity, Fast Track, The David Mayfield Parade, Shane Alexander, and Benny Benack, III with his band of New York City jazz musicians and his father, Benny Benack, Jr.
A violinist himself in his youth, Arthur was utterly amazed by the virtuosity of blind and partially deaf Grammy winning bluegrass fiddler Michael Cleveland – as well as all he had done to overcome his personal adversity.
Internationally renowned organist and improvisation-wizard, Dave Wickerham, an ARCA perennial favorite and close personal friend of Arthur’s, was among the distinguished roster of theatre organists performing on the McKissick Mighty Wurlitzer – which included Walt Strony, Ken Double, Clark Wilson, Brett Valliant, Dennis James, and Jelani Eddington, among others.
In 2014, the Scottish Festival at RiverStone farm was discontinued and replaced by an outdoor concert format featuring national touring groups like guitarists Loren and Mark, ‘grassical’ crossover artists The DePue Brothers, the Nashville country music band The Black Lilies and New Orleans R&B and Soul group, WaterSeed.
Concerts were preceded by the popular membership appreciation pig-roast picnic in the H-Barns and the concert audience would bring picnic coolers.
John Burgh who had been a favorite in Lincoln Hall, brought his ‘All Star’ big band to RiverStone for two years with vocalist Lisa Bleil that had the audience dancing on the grassy lawn west of the H-Barns in the golden twilight. Arthur would always dance to one slow song. Marquis 66 followed for one year before COVID, when the RiverStone concert and picnic did not take place.
Frequently Arthur’s son David and his wife Laura and children Dawson, Sydney and Abby would travel to enjoy the outdoor concert and membership picnic in the RiverStone H-Barns.
Thanks to the generosity of the new owners of Riverstone Estate – Saji and Shannon Daniel with Lou & Cindy Keppler – ARCA resumed its outdoor concerts at Riverstone in August 2022 with the InTransit band.
Gratefully, they also opened the H-Barns to the pre-concert Membership Picnic – an effort involving ARCA’s entire board and produced by Board member Nancy Hovis with her husband Tom shuttling ARCA members and the concert audience to and from parking.
In August 2024 ARCA attracted the biggest audience ever to attend a RiverStone concert with its BlueGrass Mini-Fest featuring Echo Valley and The David Mayfield Parade. Although most popular music sounded “all the same” to Arthur, he very much enjoyed David Mayfield’s virtuosity, entertaining comedy and showmanship… in his last ARCA concert.
Having been a music student himself from grade school through high school, Arthur was proud of ARCA’s contribution to the community through its educational concerts.
Begun under Executive Director Drew Orient, Katherine Soroka, as a former education outreach professional, expanded the program from what previously had been only assembly concerts to a comprehensive sequence in ARCA’s Educational ArtReach partnership program – including residencies in the Allegheny-Clarion Valley Schools with master teaching artists, like Attack Theatre, C Street Brass, Akropolis Reed Quintet and TAKE3.
Small classroom workshops for students from K to 12 were added to assembly concerts for elementary and Jr/Sr high students, as well as after-school masterclasses, teacher preparation materials, movement workshops for elementary students, drama workshops for Jr/Sr high school music students, and evening concerts to provide more meaningful experiences for students, teachers and parents.
For four years prior to COVID, the artwork of A-C Valley students guided by art teacher Anita Allen was mounted by RBG Artistic Director Donna Edmonds in the Upstairs Gallery of the Red Brick Gallery as the opening exhibit of the year.
Having attended Cleveland Orchestra concerts for years, Arthur was thrilled to have the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony perform in the A-C Valley High School gymnasium for students and the community as part of ARCA’s Educational ArtReach program.
In 2022, students from K to 12 were bused to Lincoln Hall for four informances by Dave Wickerham on the McKissick Mighty Wurlitzer. They were amazed by his demonstration of the percussion shelf and were brought to peals of laughter by the Laurel and Hardy silent movie – “Battle of the Century: The Pie Fight.”
With Arthur’s guidance, navigating COVID and the audience restrictions was readily accomplished, with ARCA returning to presenting concerts (while strictly following the PA guidelines) long before some of the urban centers.
At its helm through this growth, Arthur – as founder and president – continued to guide its direction with a deep appreciation for Red Brick Gallery exhibits overseen by Artistic Directors Donna Edmonds and now landscape painter Jason Floyd Lewis. The walls of his StoneRidge barn are filled with paintings and photographs by RBG cooperative artists.
As the quality of concerts of ‘world class’ artists continued to flourish, Arthur was more committed than ever to the powerful impact ARCA was having – presenting musical excellence to an ever-wider audience as ‘the cultural jewel’ of the greater Allegheny River region. He would say, “I want ARCA to continue. ARCA is very important to me.”
When ARCA’s longtime Wurlitzer technician, Jason Wiles, and favorite theatre organ artist, Dave Wickerham, came to Arthur with their concerns about the technical problems of the “tired” McKissick Mighty Wurlitzer which he had purchased from Paul McKissick for Lincoln Hall in 2005, he immediately said “Let’s get this project done – and use the bass pipes I’ve been storing for twenty years.” In his StoneRidge workshop, Arthur then completely refinished the bass pipes that will be installed behind the player piano in the back of Lincoln Hall as part of the Wurlitzer Restoration Project.
At the May 5 concert of Dave Wickerham, the Wurlitzer Restoration Project was launched with a goal of raising $76,000 – a project near and dear to Arthur’s heart. Gratefully, we are 45% on the way to reaching our goal.
From the beginning, Arthur would give artists who performed in Lincoln Hall the full ‘Foxburg Steffee experience’ – including ATV rides on forest paths pointing out ferns, mosses, trees and plants or to the top of his ridge to his “Sunset Point” and sometimes straight down the sledding slope he was creating – as well as meals and receptions at his residences.
Always Arthur expressed his appreciation of their talent and all they had done to develop it. “I don’t know how you do that – and all from memory,” he would say in amazement after a spectacular performance.
This from someone who had ended the lectures he gave to surgeons in 35 countries around the world with a multi-frame cartoon slide that compared surgeons to pianists. With a twinkle in his eyes, Arthur would describe how he admonished them that if they didn’t continue to practice as hard as pianists must to master their craft – that their patients would suffer and their contribution to humanity would be discordant music.
Arthur was an artist himself – in everything he did. Stones were his poetry – putting them together in a way that had harmony and design. In the homes and gardens and landscapes he created, he gave us the gift of looking through his eyes to see the beauty of the world he perceived. Whether listening to music with Arthur in the concert hall or in front of his speakers, as he was moved, he opened our ears to more – to hear what we hadn’t heard – and to be moved ourselves.
Arthur Steffee was a humble giant in our midst – a “doer”, who lived each day to the max in his ‘day tight compartments’, always working, curious about everything, with the huge, capacious mind of this genius polymath Renaissance man. He admired and greatly appreciated the skill, excellence and expertise of everyone – from the stone mason, machine operator, house painter, and gardener to scientist, surgeon, cook, nurse, farmer, landscape painter, and musician.
In his quiet listening and compassion for everyone he encountered, he was the kind, empathetic physician inspired by William Osler – who beheld the innate beauty of each person with whom he spoke. In the sunset, leaves, flowers and music that touched him so deeply – he sensed the divine – and it moved him to tears.
His legacy – is that he loved – and shared that with all he met – as he created a community of “friends” that he treasured as “the finest gifts in life.”
It has been an honor for the Board of Directors and all those who have joined him in realizing his vision to bring the music and art he loved to audiences in the valley through Allegheny RiverStone Center for Arts. We have been blessed to be a part of the community he created – and to be in his extended family of friends. And we are all the better for it.
His leadership and vision will be greatly missed, but we are blessed by his legacy and will strive to keep it flourishing for generations to come – as was his intent.
A concert to celebrate his memory will be announced at a later date.
If you wish to honor his memory, you may make an online contribution here. Checks may be mailed to Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts, P. O. Box 215, Foxburg, PA 16036. Telephone: 724-659-3153
Tribute writing and Photo credit – Katherine Soroka, longtime friend of Arthur Steffee, ARCA board member and artistic/marketing director
Thank you for this beautiful and informative tribute to a truly remarkable man.
Some years ago we read of a restaurant in Foxburg that was having an Octoberfest dinner, so we drove over from our home in Slippery Rock. It was an OK restaurant but the dinner was delicious. We went back the next year for the dinner. A year or so later we discovered that there was a new restaurant, the Allegheny Grill, on the river’s edge. Coming back to Foxburg we also discovered the Red Brick gallery, so I asked for membership to display and sell my fiber art. We also found the other wonderful things that Art and Pat had done to Foxburg. We came back for most of the concerts and I spent days “babysitting” the gallery. We enjoyed the Scottish Festivals at the Steffi’s mansion, bought wine from the wine store, etc. Ultimately we moved to Florida and had to leave our relationship with the Allegheny Riverstone organization and miss it greatly. We feel so lucky that we discovered Foxburg, the Steffees, and friends we made there.