Family, Friends Gather To Celebrate Artist At Yosemite
Standing along a river bank near where artist Stephen Lyman loved to hike, friends and family shared memories of a man who lived life “passionately and fully.”
The Sandpoint man was found April 19 in a steep ravine. Yosemite National Park officials say it appeared he had fallen about 50 feet from a rocky and icy section between Middle and Upper Cathedral Rocks.
Lyman’s wife, Andrea, and about 150 others gathered Saturday at Cathedral Beach picnic area, which has a view of Cathedral Rocks, for what Andrea Lyman called a “memorial celebration.”
“We just wanted to honor him in this place he considered home,” she said.
“I feel that, while many of us share the physical loss and will certainly miss Stephen, in many, many ways, his whole life was about living, about living passionately and fully and being joyful in everything.”
The service included songs and impromptu speeches from friends and family.
At one point, Andrea Lyman asked people to find a rock and think about how her 38-year-old husband touched their lives and then toss it into the Merced River so that the water could spread his spirit.
“I really wanted to have this be a celebration … (so) everything he’s given everyone could just keep on, rather than seeing this as an ending,” she said.
Lyman was raised in North Idaho and attended the University of Idaho before studying at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He was known for paintings of campfires reflecting a lake or river.
His book, titled “Into the Wilderness, An Artist ‘s Journey,” featured his paintings and photographs from Yosemite, Alaska, Canada and North Idaho.
Two slide carousels of Lyman’s photos that he had planned to show at a Sierra Club benefit were shown Saturday night.
“He saw beauty everywhere. He usually had his camera with him,” Andrea Lyman said.
“He really enjoyed and took delight in seeing and recording beauty.”
Besides his wife of 15 years, Lyman is survived by two sons, Muir and Jarre; a sister; a brother; and his mother and father.
The family requests that memorial donations be made to the Stephen E. Lyman Memorial Trust Fund, P.O. Box 755 Yosemite, CA, 95389.)
xxxx MEMORIAL SERVICE There will be a memorial service for Stephen Lyman in Sandpoint, but arrangements still are being made.