Young Steve Stoddard saw his neighbor "flying the flag before he dug a basement," he said. "That was the beginning of my love for displaying a flag, which I’ve done in Los Alamos since I’ve been here."

He was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds he received while fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, but Steve is most proud of the coveted Combat Infantry Badge.

Steve became vice president of New Mexico's Young Republicans in 1952. He went on to serve three successive terms as Justice of the Peace, winning his first term "by a landslide of eleven votes." But, he said, "I had always aspired to the Legislature. That's what I wanted to do to cap my career politically." Sen. Pete Domenici urged Steve to run for the New Mexico Senate. Elected in 1980, he served three terms, and was the sole sponsor of forty-two bills.

Additional biographical material can be found in the Los Alamos Monitor of April 2, 2000.

Written by Karen Nilsson Brandt, copyright ©