The Legacy of Richard Steeves
1988; Richard, shown on Lake Mendota with N42RS, the Coot he built.
Richard Steeves - born in Fredericksburg, Virginia and educated in London, Canada - learned to fly small floatplanes in 1959. All through the 60’s he looked for the ideal airplane and finally discovered Molt Taylor’s Coot. While building his own Coot, he edited Molt’s construction notes in 1974, and in the following year he began a bi-monthly newsletter for over 100 Coot-builders. When Molt Taylor passed on in 1995, Mrs. Taylor asked Richard to continue distributing Coot plans and information for her. He did this, as well as continuing to edit the Coot-builders newsletter until ill health forced him to hand these on in 2025.
Richard edited and sent out the Coot-builders newsletter every 2 months for 50 years. In the beginning, he had his family helping him collate, stuff, and stamp envelopes. He started and supervised the Coot-builders website, he answered Coot questions via mail, phone, and email. He published 3 books and many articles about Coots. He guided drawing updates to clarify some of Molt’s original hand-drawn drawings. He visited builder’s meetings all over the world and held a builders meeting of some sort at Oshkosh every year. It seems that Richard had personally met everyone who was building a Coot and had flown most of the Coots that were finished.
Richard’s enthusiasm for Molt Taylor’s Coot seemed boundless, he kept the Coot alive for over 50 years. The Coot Community will miss him.
2010; Richard shown in the Coot “Harvey” N1395X shortly before its sale.
