Larry never met his Uncle Steve. The name appears two ways through his life. His father, Clarence Wallace, used both “Stephen” and “Steven.” The inventions are under Stephen A. Crosby. He signed letters as Steve.
He lived a short distance from the house in Waukegan. It took Larry’s sister Patricia Suzanne (Sue) to make the contact. The Clarence Wallace branch was practical and inventive. Uncle Steve made it a profession. He had over 50 patents. The most famous was the stapler.
Uncle Steve’s lab — remembrances by Patricia Suzanne Crosby, February 2019
About 1977. She had never met him, though they lived less than an hour apart. She was in her early thirties. He made her feel warm and welcome.
The lab was immaculate. Glass-covered cabinets in orderly diagonal rows. Precision tools laid out like a museum, under glass, on dark red velvet as she remembered. Everything polished. No junk drawer. A sense of reverence. She did not remember the lab as big, but it felt complete.
He loved showing her around. He had pride in the work. He designed for companies out of Chicago. His wife was Violet Lavon Thomas. Steven had no biological children. There was one adopted son, Kenneth M.
