Steve Temple

Steve Temple

President

I was born in Raleigh in 1953, grew up in the region, and attended North Carolina State University. Shortly after my wife Debbie and I had our first two daughters, we left the girls with my parents and took our first trip to the North Carolina mountains. We visited Drift Falls, Turtleback Falls, Rainbow Falls and Stairstep Falls, all on the Horsepasture River. That was our first exposure to the wonderful waterfalls of North Carolina. Trips out west were infrequent in those early days, but as the second set of kids came along, we gradually began to venture out more. New friendships have been developed through these many years, including with folks like Kevin Adams, Rich Stevenson, and Bernie Boyer, who all have been gracious with sharing information. There have been many special moments, such as when the view of a waterfall first opens before me, perhaps as I crest a hill, reach the edge of cliff, or glimpse the first flashes of white through the trees. This is exciting enough when alone, but hardly matches the joy and satisfaction of seeing the expressions on faces and hearing the exclamations of family and friends when first they see the beauty for themselves. To take a group of young adults to climb behind a waterfall and stand behind the solid sheet of falling water, hearing one of them say, “This is the coolest thing I’ve ever done”; to see an old arthritic friend make his way down the rocky trail to Crabtree Falls and watch him stand in awe of its beauty, pull out his phone, call his wife, and hold the phone up so that she can hear the singing of the falls; to take my son to see the dam release at High Falls and unexpectedly bump into Kevin and his wife, and then later that same day to meet Bernie for the first time and have him escort us to his namesake waterfall; to have a four-year-old granddaughter look up at me and say, “Poppi, can you take us to see a water fountain?”–these, and so many other memories will, I hope, remain with me forever. I have worked almost 44 years in the Plasma Fractionation industry, and this has provided me the resources to make the many journeys out west and see hundreds of waterfalls. I am so happy to have seen these falls with my wife, my children, my grandchildren, and friends. I look forward to continuing this journey for many years to come.