Steve died in Key West, Florida at age 60 of a heart attack.  He worked as the public relations director for the Key West Art and Historical Society since his arrival there in 1998.  He played the trumpet with the Paradise Big Band  on the night before he died.

Steve worked as a writer and editor  for the Chicago Tribune from 1967 to 1997 where he won a James Beard Journalism Award for his three-part series "America's Plate" on American eating habits. He was an amateur chef and when he lived in Chicago he hosted legendary Halloween and New Year's Eve parties and often invited coworkers to Thanksgiving dinner.  After his retirement in 1967, he moved to Key West.

He was preceded in death by his wife Joy Darrow (writer and photojournalist at the Tribune and grandniece of Clarence Darrow). He is survived by two daughters, Tracy and Marcy Baim, a son Clark Baim and a sister Martha Goldberg.

information supplied by Sarah Finch Clayton