Richard Stevenson

Richard W. Stevenson, whose love of writing propelled him first to a long career on Madison Avenue and then to a second chapter in Connecticut as a journalist and author with a deep passion for antiques and American history, died on Aug. 17 at Hartford Hospital. He was 83.

His career was in his blood. His father, Robert P. Stevenson, was a journalist with the Associated Press and Popular Science Magazine. His mother, Ethel Wylly Sweet, was a pioneer among women in the advertising business.  He often described himself as a writer from a family of writers.

He worked as a copywriter and creative executive for more than four decades at many of the legendary agencies of the “Mad Men” era: Ogilvy & Mather, J. Walter Thompson, Dancer Fitzgerald Sample and NW Ayer. He brought a literary sensibility to selling everything from gasoline and toilet paper to private banking services.

But he found his greatest professional satisfaction after moving full-time to Northwestern Connecticut two decades ago. Drawing on his long study of antiques and American heritage, he wrote regularly on those subjects and others for The New York Times, the Litchfield County Times, Westchester Magazine and other publications.  In 2006, he contributed to Expressions of Innocence and Eloquence, published by Yale University Press, a collection of essays on American heritage.

Along with his wife Pam, a nationally recognized expert in seat weaving and chair re-caning, he was also a well-known collector of antiques.

He was born on September 27,1934, in Williamsport, Pa. The family moved first to Philadelphia and then to New York, where he lived for much of his life. He graduated from Hackley and from the Hill School, and attended the University of Wisconsin before joining the United States Army.

He and his first wife, Claire Stevenson, had four children – Dick, Betsy, Anne and Sarah – and six grandchildren. He will be greatly missed by his family. The burial will be a private service to honor his memory. 

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