Steve McGraw

I found out today that the water recycling team has lost a fine man, and I have lost a good friend.  Steve McGraw died of an apparent heart attack while vacationing in South Carolina.  I remember when i first met Steve.  About ten years ago, he was trying to convince the Indiana County Solid Waste Authority to hire his frim (Stiffler- McGraw) as the Authority's engineering firm.  He left such a positive impression, right from the start.  Over the years, he has helped the Authority, make hundreds of thousands of dolars worth of improvements to one of the leading recycling programs in Pennsylvania.  Ironically, Steve and I for many years have had a variety of discussions about new and different recycling ideas, including the idea of recycling household sewage for reuse in the home.  We conjectured many possible products and processing combinations.  Then in March of 2007,  my wife Cathy and I bought a cabin on the Mahoning Creek in Templeton, Pa. that did not have, and could not get, conventional septic.  The playful discussions about water recycling that Steve and I had been having became a bit more serious; and he was the first to encourage me to pursue the idea of water recycling at the Mahoning cabin.  He provided his expert staff and a variety of free, or low cost engineering services at the beginning of the project, without which the project would have died.  He also provided his valuable time to meet, correspond and brainstorm aspects of the propect; but most of all, he provided a level of professionalism and credibility that energized the team, and gave me a special confidence in our entrepreneurial effort.  He was an inspiration to the water recycling project, and will be sorely missed.  I'll write more in the future.  For right now, keep his family in your prayers; and may God bless his eternal soul.  Tom Falcone