Stephen Cavanaugh

Stephen Cavanaugh of Tracy, California, died Jan. 7 after a battle with cancer. He was 66.

Cavanaugh was born April 22, 1950. He began his career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on April 14, 1980 as an electrician supporting the fire and life safety systems in the inspection, test and repair group for the Alarms Division. He retired April 15, 2011 after 31 years of dedicated service. Cavanaugh was a hard worker, was never in a hurry and was very precise and methodical. He cared about doing a good job and was loyal to doing just that up until the day of his retirement.

Cavanaugh had a passion for trains that developed in his early childhood years and spent a great deal of his life as a model railroad hobbyist traveling to various roadshows and exhibits. In fact, he was such an enthusiast that he almost perfectly replicated the western pacific railroads piece by piece. You can see the level of detail in action that was featured in the Model Railroad Hobbyist magazine. This was one of his great achievements: “Steve’s masterpiece” as one of his brothers put it.

Cavanaugh enjoyed traveling, meeting new people and going to local dance clubs on weekends. His passion and attention to the smallest details to create his model railroads and trains was truly amazing. He was very good at what he did and was proud of it. His hard-working meticulous ethics, his passion for trains, traveling and meeting new people is how his alarms family will always remember him.

He is survived by his daughter, Stephanie and her husband John; his grandchildren, Siena and Casey; his son, Scott; his brothers, Tom and Tim; and his sister, Sylvia.