“I would like to say that the journey in one’s life is what you make of it. Being knocked down a few notches has humbled me. It has brought me closer to the people I love. For what reason I can’t always say, because I can be a right bastard sometimes, I am loved. When the chips are down you find out who your friends are. My wife and I are tighter than we have ever been and I’m still Daddy to my kids. I’m grateful for my family and my friends. Without them you are nothing!”

Steve Muse was born in San Diego, California into a family of builders. His grandfather built his own house and a small fiberglass fishing boat among other things. His uncle Dan was a General Contractor and, at an early age, Steve spent summers working for him and learned the trades of carpentry, plumbing, electrical wiring, roofing, masonry, drywall, etc. They did it all! While growing up, Steve thought, everybody does that stuff. His grandfather Jesse, father Phil and Uncle Jim worked at Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical where they worked in aerospace manufacturing and development. All retired from the company which no longer exists.

Growing up in the east county, Steve attended Riverview Elementary in Lakeside. Later he matriculated to El Capitan High School, also in Lakeside. Initially, Steve attended college, but overwhelmed with his work load, soon dropped out to follow other pursuits.

Steve’s career path was tortuous. Upon his high school graduation in 1976 his dream was to be an architect. He attended classes at Grossmont, Mesa, Southwestern, and Cuyamaca Junior Colleges. At those campuses he studied mathematics, plane surveying and drafting. Finding hanging drywall during the day to be backbreaking labor, fatigue led him to drop out of his evening classes.

In March 1980, Steve took a job for a small civil engineering firm (Biggs Engineering) as a draftsman and member of a survey party. That was the beginning of his drafting career although he still relied on his carpentry skills for many years. His hammer paid the bills. But this was the beginning of a career path that brought him to where he is today.

A year later, Steve was hired at Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical. Having the last name of Muse got his foot in the door as an aerospace loftsman. His skills kept him there for two years. At Teledyne, he worked on the prototype Apache AH64 Attack helicopter fuselage. An aerospace loftsman, as you may know, spawned from ships loftsmen. Both developed the ships lines and contours in a two dimensional flat layout called a Lines Board. He used descriptive geometry and orthographic projection (drawing an object from different views) to layout flat patterns for sheet metal that is formed to create detail parts for the aircraft. The schematic drafting was done with the accuracy of five thousands of an inch. Precision drafting had now become Steve’s specialty.

The project came to an end and he was laid off again. In March1983, he was employed at General Dynamics-Convair Division, again hired as a loftsman. This time he was introduced to CAD design. In the early eighties, the computer was just being introduced to aerospace design and drafting. It was also the first time he started working in a 3D environment and he quickly learned how to develop compound contoured aerodynamic surfaces and assemblies for the Tomahawk Cruise Missile and the Shuttle Centaur which was a smaller version of the famed Atlas Centaur. The Centaur was intended to be launched out of the Space Shuttle.

Layoffs found him pounding nails again for a summer. Then he hired on at Rohr in the Loft department in July of 1986. He worked there for over fifteen years. He became very efficient designing detail parts and major assemblies in the 3D solid modeling environment and was promoted to senior design engineer, working on engine nacelles, thrust reversers and pylons for the Boeing 757 and McDonnell Douglas MD95. He worked on a lot of different designs while at Rohr but Steve was most proud of those.

In March 2001, Steve struck out on his own starting a small business as a builder/handyman. “Museman” was his company name and he did anything from installing toilets to room additions. He didn’t make anywhere near the salary as an independent contractor but it afforded him the freedom to go on rock climbing expeditions and ride his mountain bike whenever he wished.

Steve has been very active most of his life, participating in many sports. He was involved in tennis, running, volleyball, cycling and rock climbing. Rock climbing and mountain biking pretty much defined who he was in his youth. He went on expeditions from the Northwest Territories in Canada to Baja Mexico.

Wanting to carry his sports enthusiasm beyond mere workouts, Steve teamed up with his best friend and climbing partner to build an indoor rock climbing gym in Thousand Oaks. They called the gym, “Boulderdash.” It was an exciting project for them and he learned to weld steel on that job. Everything was steel and plywood with a lath and plaster finish and then was painted to look like rock.

The job was so far from San Diego that the dynamic duo rented a condo to live in while construction continued. Staying for two weeks at a time, he’d drive home to see the wife and family for a weekend, and then return to Thousand Oaks. Unfortunately for Steve, on the day we switched to daylight savings, April 4, 2004, he fell asleep at the wheel in the middle of the day driving north on the 405 freeway.

Hitting a bridge support at 65 MPH, Steve crushed his C5, C6 and C7 vertebrae leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. He states, “I have no recollection of the accident. Only when I woke in the trauma center did I learn of my predicament when the first words I heard from my doctor were, ’You’ll never walk again.’”

“The shock of that was terrible to bear and I cried every day for four months. I had thoughts of suicide, but was too weak to do anything about it. I was down to 130 pounds and so weak I couldn’t feed myself or even wipe my own butt. I went home from the hospital with a pressure ulcer the size two fists on my rear-end that took a year to heal. Skin graphs on my right arm and shoulder were the cause of much pain and anguish. The pain was so great that morphine only knocked the edge off of the screaming howler which I have never experienced before or want to again. I can’t even imagine what a burn victim must endure.”

Slowly Steve’s attitude began to change. Mental lights came on and he began to look out instead of in. He realized that he has a wonderful wife and two loving kids and a great many friends. “I feel lucky to have use of both my hands and arms.” He was able to go back to work, this time at Solar Turbines starting in January 2006 and is still working there today.

It was at General Dynamics that Steve met his wife Jennifer. Getting to know each other, they dated for a few years before getting married in August 1987. They have been happily married for twenty five years and have two grown children, Julia 22 and Jesse 20. “My wife Jennifer has worked at Solar for over twenty years and I like to tell everybody that she got me my job.” They carpool together most days, riding the commuter lane from Poway. Working in the same department, they design and build wellhead equipment for the oil and gas industry used in the transfer of natural gas through pipelines.

Allowing his mind to wander, Steve suggests, “I think that I have two lives, one before the accident and one after. Both are extraordinary. In terms of accomplishments work is only secondary. I was a climber for almost twenty years. I managed to do 16 big wall climbs in Yosemite, Zion, Canyonlands and Baja California. I climbed ice walls in Canada, Lee Vining Canyon and Ouray, Colorado. I rode my mountain bike on the White Rim Trail in Utah, deserts in Arizona, mountains in Colorado and all over San Diego’s mountains and deserts. When I got hurt I started a second life. Since then I am the first Quad to climb Yosemite’s El Capitan via the Zodiac route (My 17th big wall). I paddled over three thousand miles in my tandem kayak with various partners including my wife Jennifer. I was involved in kayak expeditions in Baja on the Sea of Cortes every year for the last six years as well as an open water crossing from San Pedro to Catalina and back. In local waters, I’ve paddled from La Jolla to Mission Bay and Mission Bay to San Diego Bay. I designed and built a rail bike called the ‘Rail Rider’ that I can ride on abandoned railroad lines. That was a major project taking about a year from start to finish and I am quite proud of that accomplishment. It has taken me to my favorite mountain bike ride in San Diego County. My dream to be in Corrizo Gorge again has been achieved.”

Steve turned towards sailing when he received an introduction to Challenged America from his brother-in-law, who sent him the website link. Steve pointed out, “From the first time I sat in one of the Martin 16’s, I was hooked.” Being an adventurer, he immediately started dreaming of sailing down the coast of Baja. In San Diego Bay, he has raced in the Beer Can Regattas put on by Cortez Racing in a Capri 22 and a Santana 25 two years running with Challenged America. Steve states, “It’s very exciting and I hope to continue this year. It has brought me new friends like Mike and Sylvia Swall, Doug Shaw, Steve Edenson, John Barba, Hiro Iwamoto and Urban Miyares among others. I’m proud to know everybody at Challenged America and deeply appreciate their voluntary support.”

While thrilled with his sailing at CA, Steve would like to see larger boats with motors where he can easily reach the controls. “I can’t reach the motor on the Santana 25 to start it and the controls are out of reach as well.” With Steve’s competitive spirit, he would like to be involved with more racing.

Thinking of his interaction with CA, Steve suggests, “If you are a recipient, get out there and sail the bottom off those suckers (Martins)! If you are a volunteer or CA supporter, thank you for allowing me and my wife such an awesome opportunity to learn to sail at Challenged America.”

“I would like to say that the journey in one’s life is what you make of it. Being knocked down a few notches has humbled me. It has brought me closer to the people I love. For what reason I can’t always say, because I can be a right bastard sometimes, I am loved. When the chips are down you find out who your friends are. My wife and I are tighter than we have ever been and I’m still Daddy to my kids. I’m grateful for my family and my friends. Without them you are nothing!”

Steve has had a very active life that was interrupted by a tragic accident in mid-stride. However, he has not allowed that accident or paralysis to tame or restrain him. In his post-accident renaissance, Steve has continued to kayak, climb, cycle and sail. I believe that he is a model for the disabled. His motto should be, “What disability?”

Marshall Lubin