Rick Steele (1954 - 2018)
	
Rick Steele was born in Whitehorse. He received a BA in English from the University of British Columbia and was a teacher’s assistant while he was pursuing a master’s degree. He returned to Whitehorse in the early 1990s and started an editing and desktop publishing business where he became proficient at the technical side of the work. The internet was just starting in the Yukon and he and Richard Lawrence set up a small system that sent messages back and forth twice a day to the University of Alberta’s campus. Rick went on to manage the YukonNet Operating Society that advocated and created the Yukon’s first public internet service in January 1995. He pushed to have the service expanded to the communities.((Jackie Hong, “Yukon internet pioneer Rick Steele dead at 64.” //Yukon News,// 16 September 2018.))  

Rick co-founded Tech Yukon with Chris Lane and served as their executive director from 2014 to November 2017. For just over ten years, starting in 2004, Steele worked as the technology innovation officer for Yukon College. He focused on helping students fine-tune their ideas and find funding for start-ups.((Jackie Hong, “Yukon internet pioneer Rick Steele dead at 64.” //Yukon News,// 16 September 2018.)) 

Rick loved books, wrote extensively, and was just starting a book on the early years of the Yukon internet when he died. He was passionate about soccer and woke up early on Saturdays to catch the English Premier League on TV. He was a private person but could talk to anyone about almost anything. He had a great and unique sense of humour and was a very smart and caring person. He and Aline Goncalves married in 2007. He is survived by his wife, brother Gordon, and sister Mary.((Jackie Hong, “Yukon internet pioneer Rick Steele dead at 64.” //Yukon News,// 16 September 2018.))