BIO

(Last updated May 31, 2023)
Steve has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1982. Steve was hired out of UCSB by Coopers and Lybrand in Los Angeles in 1978 (now Price Waterhouse Coopers). Steve left that firm in 1982 and later founded his Public Accounting practice in Santa Barbara. In 1996, Steve took a sabbatical from public accounting and then returned to the work place as a Director of Tax and Finance for a publicly traded corporation.   Steve returned to public accounting in 2006.  Steve passed the CFP exam in November 2014 and also has a real estate broker’s license.  He has been involved with numerous real estate finance and buy and sell transactions with private parties.

In 2001, Steve was nationally recognized for making a suggestion that HUD attempted to adopt that would substantially eliminate broker abuse of closing costs in connection with real estate loan transactions. Steve is proud to announce that the changes were finally adopted through legislation in January 2010 and have significantly reduced the ability of broker’s to take advantage of borrowers. Steve has also taught courses through the Santa Barbara Community College Adult Ed program on Real Estate Finance focusing on how to negotiate the best terms on a real estate loan. 

COMMUNITY SERVICE
Board of Directors of:
1992 to 1993: Environmental Defense Center
1986 to 1992: Santa Barbara County Foodbank
1985 to 1986: National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse
1982 to 1985: Santa Barbara Jaycees

Other:
1993 to 2005: AYSO soccer coach and referee, board member
1993 to 2004: Boys and Girls Club basketball/soccer coach
2005 to 2006: Volleyball coach USYVL
2020-present: Volunteer for Audubon Society of SB and Channel Keepers

EDUCATION AND LICENSES:
1978 BA Economics, University of California Santa Barbara
1982 Certified Public Accountant, State Of California (34898E)
1984 Teaching Certificate, Santa Barbara Community College
1987 Certificate in personal financial planning, AICPA
1999 California real estate broker’s license (01267239)
2011 Series 65 license
2014 CFP(R) No longer active  

PERSONAL BIO
Steve is the direct descendant of a Kentucky hillbilly and very proud of it.  His father joined the US Navy at 16 and was inducted on July 4, 1942 and served in both the Atlantic and Pacific theater.  His mother left school around the same time and bucked rivets for Boeing in the Seattle area and was a proud member of the Rosie the Riveter society.  After graduating from high school, Steve worked in the shipyards in San Diego as a ship-fitter, putting himself through Community College until he transferred to UCSB to complete his degree in economics.  Steve  has three children.  His oldest, Stephanie, 38,  got her MD from Georgetown in 2013 and is now practicing in the Tri-cities area of Washington state.  And let’s not forget grandson Harrison and granddaughters Isabelle and Nora.  Jared is 35 and a second generation UCSB graduate and CPA who just moved back to SB and is a commercial real estate acquisition and investment manager.  Jared and his wife Lily have two children, Winnie and Willamena.  (you’re right, that’s makes 5 grandkids!)  Brian is 27 and taught himself how to program at 14 and worked several years on blockchain technology through the Ethereum platform (hope I got that right!).  He decided to complete his college education and graduated from UCSB in March 2023.  Brian is in the Coast Guard.  He got his pilot’s license at 18 and has applied for the Coastguard helicopter pilot program.

Steve has always sought to balance the professional Yang in his life with a good dose of Yin to maintain a healthy mental outlook on his work and do it with the passion and focus he would expect from someone else doing work for him.  His latest passion is studying and attempting to write poetry and he has been writing a daily Haiku for for almost two years.  Steve also studies depth psychology and comparative religion and recently took up playing Pickleball.  Steve is a Pisces so naturally loves the ocean and ocean sports of all kinds, but mainly surfing.  Past pursuits led to a black belt in Hung Gar Kung Fu, a form of Chinese martial arts and founding the Santa Barbara Boxing Club.  More currently, Steve practices yoga and enjoys hiking the foothills of SB.  Let’s not forget restoring an 1880 Victorian era home in downtown Santa Barbara.  Look for his blog soon on TOMFH.com (will let you figure out what that means!)  Other interests include meditation, gardening, bird watching and of course his grandkids the oldest of which is learning to surf at his tutelage.