Wasilla celebrates councilman’s life

WASILLA — Among the many stories people shared of their friend, Steve Lovell, during a memorial service Tuesday at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center, none was quite as explosive as the one Freddy Pollack told about a hunting trip they took once.

Lovell had his grandson set a can up away from camp, then pulled out a gigantic, .50-caliber gun.

“He shoots this can and the whole world blows up. It was dynamite or something, I don’t know what it was,” Pollack said. “There again, that was Steve, living large.”

Lovell, a city councilman in Wasilla, died June 30 in a heavy equipment accident near his Wasilla home. Tuesday’s ceremony was both a memorial for him — featuring military honors — and for his son, Shanon Lovell, whose body was found at the end of May in a Palmer-area lake after having been missing since October 2012.

Cyrus Lovell, 13, spoke highly of his father, Shanon Lovell.

“My dad was a good guy. I loved him a lot,” he said. “I will miss my dad and not mourn his death, but cherish his life.”

A lot of people’s comments were directed to Cyrus, who had been living with his grandfather, Steve Lovell, after the disappearance of his father.

“Cyrus, you were Papa’s life. The light in his eyes,” Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright, a longtime friend of Steve Lovell’s and colleague in city government, told the boy. “He wanted the best for you every day.”

The mayor described his friend as “sure, steadfast, American, Alaskan.”

Brad Philbin knew both Steve and Shanon Lovell. Philbin’s family met Lovell’s family soon after the Lovells moved to Anchorage. The two families moved to Wasilla at around the same time.

“I was born in Alaska, but Steve was more of an Alaskan than I was,” Philbin said. “We’ve been best friends for many years.”

He recalled pig roasts and nights with his friend featuring fun, food and live music. He said that Steve Lovell had worried about Shanon, who had gotten into some trouble with the law, but had come to realize the he loved his son no matter what.

“He might have done some wrong things, but (Shanon) was a good person,” Philbin said.

Margie Handley, Steve Lovell’s mother, compared her son to Ronald Reagan, who she knew well and with whom she worked when Reagan was governor of California. She said Reagan was a man of strong beliefs.

“Steve was exactly like that. He knew what he believed,” she said.

She expressed admiration for her son’s political skills.

“I ran for 10 years for Senate and never won,” she said. “Steven ran for 30 days.”

She said she thinks the steadfastness of his beliefs won him the city council seat.

“Our family in California has been overwhelmed at the love and affection that his community had for Shanon and Steven,” she said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.