T.S. Eliot’s haunting observation that " April is the cruelest month " assumed a new and immediate poignancy for many of us at the Phoenix and our broadcast sister, FNX radio, when we received word that one-time colleague and long-time friend Rob Stevens had lost his two-year battle with stomach cancer at the age of 46.

In the early 1990s, Rob was national sales manager at the Phoenix, but before that he worked for several years as a ski instructor in Aspen. Anyone who knew Rob well would tell you that he truly came alive on the slopes. Speed. Grace. Stamina. These became extensions of his already ebullient personality.

Rob had a special gift for living. He worked hard and he played hard. And once he married and had a family of his own, he loved with an intensity that was right out of the pages of a storybook. He had that rare ability to make his avocation his vocation. Working with his friend Andy Kingston at the radio station, Rob channeled his passion for the slopes and helped develop the FNX Ski Team program, which still operates today. His nose for the next big thing and his love for rock and roll led him to help bring the Priviet Vodka Discovery Series of concerts to Boston, which introduced the then-not-so-well-known band Pearl Jam to the city.

When Rob’s friends and family gathered before his funeral to honor his memory and remember happier times, person after person commented on how vividly Rob had lived his life. In 46 all-too-short years, he lived more fully than most of us.

On his final day, as Rob felt his life slipping away, he called in his three young children and, one by one, said his goodbyes to Alana, Adam, and Robbie. When they left the room, he embraced his wife, Lissa, for the final time. He died at home, in her arms.