Steve Long was born Steven Joseph Longo on September 18, 1955, making him a Baby Boomer. The grandson of Sicilian immigrants, he grew up in a lively and devout Catholic extended family in Buffalo, New York. After struggling at school and with neighborhood bullies, he eventually overcame those challenges and found his identity and purpose in high school and college—a passion for history and becoming an educator. Though he chose to marry and raise a child at the young age of 20, he eventually pursued and obtained a bachelor's degree in history with honors and embarked on a 32-year career as a secondary school history and social studies teacher. He taught in poor, middle-class, and affluent, rural, urban, and suburban communities in South Carolina, New York, and Texas. A lifelong learner with a fervent desire to inspire others toward becoming the same, he has tried to impart that enthusiasm to his students, family members, and friends with a flair for acting and theater. He's visited a dozen different places in Europe, but the pinnacle of his travels was when he became the first and only descendant of his ancestors who left Sicily at the turn of the 20th-c-never to return, to visit their homeland. He has also been a drummer since about age 5, following in the footsteps of his father, former big-band-era drummer Frank A. Longo, Jr. He's the proud father of Stephen Long, who trained as a violinist and taught himself guitar, and for 10 years he played in a band called The Longshots with him, covering classic rock and blues. His other hobby is building scale models—aircraft, ships, figures, armor, spacecraft, and sci-fi models—which he has done since about age 10. He's skydived and water skied- once one time only. He's also a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan, still waiting for them to finally win the Super Bowl. Though he's skydived, attempted water skiing, and ridden a horse, he still wants to learn how to Jitterbug before he dies- despite his age.
Author Info
