DOD: 30 Sept. 2015

Friends honor memory of train crash victim

By Tessa TerrillFrom page A1 | October 09, 2015 

Friends are mourning the death of Steven Lowell Inness, 55, of Davis, after he was struck by a westbound freight train east of town early on the morning of Sept. 30. Inness made many connections in the community through his volunteer work with Davis Bicycles! and the Citrus Circuits robotics team.

“Steve would always show up and be willing to do anything,” said Steve Tracy of Davis Bicycles!, who said Inness was a good friend. “We would put out the call and he would appear.”

Whether it was dragging heavy equipment, putting up tents or cutting oranges for other volunteers to eat, Inness was always doing something, Tracy said.

Inness was intelligent, worked hard and lived “pretty close to the ground,” according to Tracy. He would always offer Inness food at the events and asked him to take extra home.

“He was never greedy about that,” Tracy said.

Tracy said Inness was all about two things — other people and gadgets; he had a “childish awe” for things that could be created with tools and ingenuity.

Former Mayor Joe Krovoza also knew Inness from his work with the bicycle advocacy group.

“Steve was always in those meetings and was a wonderful contributor,” Krovoza said. “He’s one of these incredibly smart people that cared about the city and followed everything.”

According to Krovoza, Inness was particularly interested in issues surrounding sustainability, clean energy and electric vehicles. He often attended seminars on those subjects at UC Davis and spoke at City Council meetings on issues like economic development, engineering and technology jobs.

“If he cared enough to say something, you knew it was worth listening to,” Krovoza said. “I always wanted to know his take on it, and I always valued his input.”

Steve Harvey is a teacher at Davis High School and adviser to the robotics team, which Inness served as a mentor.

“He came to a lot of meetings and was very engaged with students,” Harvey recalled. “He wasn’t a mentor that continually asked what could he do, he really just got in there and helped and gave advice and was always active with our team.”

Harvey also spoke highly of Inness’ intelligence, especially in the areas of electronics and programming. He said Inness grew up in the Bay Area during the early days of computers, when Microsoft and Apple were first booting up.

Inness reportedly knew some of the early major players in the computer industry and was involved with design and construction of computers.

“I think his real passion was electronics and electronic circuitry,” Harvey said. “Our team provided him with an outlet for his passion.”

At Davis High, Inness would advise students on how to improve their robot. “On a professional level, Steve did everything I would hope for a mentor to do,” Harvey said.

Davis police Lt. Ton Phan said Inness was the subject of a missing-person report filed the day before his death and was considered at risk “based on some concerns that were made by the reporting party.”

But Tracy and Krovoza said they saw no warning signs of suicide and had no idea that he was suffering emotional problems.

“It just really hit me hard. I really lament that he’s left us,” Krovoza said.

Hearing that Inness had committed suicide was a “big shock” for Harvey, but he said he know Inness didn’t have a permanent address.

“He would show up on his bicycle,” Harvey recalled. “It seemed to me that he had some issues going on in his life outside of what I saw on our robotics team. But he seemed happy; he seemed like he was enjoying what he was doing.”

Before he died, Inness helped Davis Bicycles! volunteers improve bike loop signs to include places of interests that might be near the paths. Tracy said the push to get the new signs posted is even stronger now because they will serve to memorialize Inness and all he did for Davis.