It is with great sadness that we learnt of the sudden death
of Kevin Stephenson.

Kevin worked in the Schedules Department of first United
Automobile Services then continued there when it became Arriva North East. He
started with United in 1977 straight from school and worked at Middlesbrough,
Darlington, Stockton, and Redcar until his untimely death.

Kevin was born in Harrogate but moved to Redcar when a child
and lived in that town for the rest of his life.

Kevin who was known by all as “Big Kevin” or Big Kev” due to
his height of 6’ 10” was well liked by everyone who met him due to his outgoing,
happy go lucky outlook on life. The big love of his life was Middlesbrough FC
and until very recently when poor health prevented him attending matches was a
season ticket holder at Ayresome Park then the Riverside Stadium. He was
overjoyed to see his beloved Boro win the League Cup at Cardiff in 2004.

I personally got to know Kevin very well in the Summer of
2003 when all the ANE schedulers spent 12 months at Durham learning the Trapeze
Scheduling System and we met up on a regular basis afterwards including on
teams during the present COVID 19 crisis

You could always rely on Kevin to get peoples spirits up as
he really was a larger than life character.

Kevin will be missed by all who encountered him, and we have
lost a very good friend and well-respected colleague

Rest in peace Big Kev

This tribute was kindly provided by Ian Mather - long term friend and Colleague.