Robert Steadman grew up near Syracuse, New York, the second oldest of five children, and Michigan, where his dad served as the state’s Controller. Bob graduated from Wayne University Law School in February of 1951, having earned his Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Law, and Juris Doctor degree in five-and-a-half years, while working nights for extended periods on the Ford Rouge Plant’s engine line. Drafted in May of 1951 for the Korean conflict, he completed Officer Candidate School and was discharged as a second lieutenant late in 1953. Steadman had the great fortune of working a year with the best attorney in Flint and one year as an assistant prosecutor, where he had an intensive introduction to trial work. While learning to fly at Flint’s Bishop Airport, he met and married his instructor, Bernice Trimble, already a famous racing pilot, in 1959. His aviation expertise later led to a position as corporate and trial attorney for Airway Insurance Company in Ann Arbor, where he defended aviation death cases from Massachusetts to Alaska for several years. He turned down the company's presidency in 1972 when it moved to Texas and he chose to move to Traverse City instead. Bob was eighty-one in 2009 when he tried and won his last jury case with an extremely rare verdict of fraud against a local bank. The jury awarded his clients $400,000. He then cared for Bernice during her remaining years of illness until he lost her in 2015 after fifty-six wonderful years. Since 2018, he has led the campaign for a new senior center as president of Senior Center Friends in Traverse City. He continues fishing, hunting pheasants with his German Shorthair pointer, Belle; and playing bridge with his friends.