Stephen Clark Seward died on June 14, 2024, surrounded by family at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut. He was 75.

Steve could connect with anyone he met, and usually did, always eager to engage, debate, and learn about other people's lives. He turned that gregarious personality into a long and successful career as a charitable fundraising coach, advising countless non-profit organizations in the course of his life, from the Jewish Child Care Association and The Boys' Club of New York to Educate! in East Africa. His work helped to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for causes important to him and society.

Serving others was important to Steve. He was a branch director in the Union City Public Library system; executive vice president of the John O'Donnell Company, a fundraising consultancy; director of philanthropy for the Nature Conservancy in New York; and executive director of the Scarsdale Schools Education Foundation; among other roles dedicated to public service. He gave much of his free time to non-profit work, as well, most recently serving as president of the Litchfield Hills Rowing Club (LHRC).

Born in Queens, New York, to Phyllis Clark and Rossiter Seward, "Stevie," then Stephen, and then Steve grew up there and in Wayne, New Jersey, and Hillburn, New York, with his siblings Doug, Dave, and Cindy. He was student council president and captain of the tennis team at Suffern High School before going to Amherst College, where he studied political science and dedicated much of his time to political organizing and opposition to the Vietnam War.

After graduating, Steve worked for the progressive newsweekly The Guardian. He then got a master's degree in library science from the University at Buffalo and ended up at the Foundation Center in New York City, where he met a coworker, Sherry Moses, whom he fell in love with and married in 1982. Their early years in the city were filled with theater, which Steve continued to enjoy his entire life.

Sherry and Steve moved to Ardsley and then Scarsdale, New York, to pursue careers in philanthropy and raise their son, Zach, whose love of journalism owes to the newspapers and magazines that Steve stacked on the kitchen table. In his suburban years, Steve was a Little League coach, synagogue advisor, and of course fundraising consultant to many local charities.

When he and Sherry began spending more time in Roxbury, Connecticut, they became active in the local organizations like the Connecticut Community Foundation, where Steve was a board member for six years. He also took up rowing and came to relish early-morning practices on Bantam Lake and weekend regattas with LHRC teammates, who recently honored him by naming one of the boats "Seward's Folly." He proudly rowed The Head of the Charles in 2022.

Steve is survived by his wife Sherry Seward; his son Zach Seward and daughter-in-law Kate Lee; his grandchildren Hugo and Nicholas Seward, who were the center of Steve's universe in the last decade of his life; and his siblings Doug, Dave, and Cindy Seward.

Services will be held on Monday, June 17, at 1 p.m., at B'nai Israel in Southbury, Connecticut, with a private burial to follow. In lieu of flowers, Steve would have been honored by donations to any of his favorite charities, including: Educate! (experienceeducate.org), which provides job training to youth in Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya; and the Litchfield Hills Rowing Club (litchfieldhillsrowing.org), which operates affordable rowing programs, including a financial-aid program for student rowers.

To leave an online condolence please visit munsonloveterefuneralhome.com.