SPECIAL TO THE PVT Richard Stephens, longtime Beatty High School teacher and photographer. Advertisement

BEATTY -- There is only one other faculty member at Beatty High School who has been at the home of the Hornets longer than English and art teacher Richard Stephens.

The Beatty school will honor Stephens, who is also a reporter/photographer for the Pahrump Valley Times, the Tonopah Times-Bonanza, and the Goldfield News, during a ceremony at 6 p.m. Friday at the Beatty Community Center.

Other school retirees will also be honored. Stephens steps down after 30 years teaching local students.

Stephens' story is actually twofold: he's not only a long-time teacher but an accomplished photographer who has a studio next to his home.

Stephens was raised in Graham, Texas, 100 miles west of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He spent the last two years of high school in Las Vegas, graduating from Las Vegas High. His stepfather and mother were dry cleaners. It was in Las Vegas that he discovered a love of art and photography.

"My first job was in a photo studio. I was always into art, and my junior year in high school I was looking for a job with a friend who was working in a photo studio," Stephens said. "That was back when you used to hand-paint photographs."

Stephens went on to receive his bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University in 1976 and later a master's degree in English with a minor in British literature.

"I was interested in a small town and jobs were pretty tight. In fact, a day or so after I had accepted the job in Beatty I had a call from Pahrump, but I had already taken Beatty and actually I'm glad I did. I kind of like the small town," Stephens said.

It was a town he first visited while photographing wildflowers on the highway near Rhyolite. He considers Beatty a good place to raise a family. Stephens saw his first graduating class in 1978.

Stephens constructed his art studio himself, but since he didn't own the lot, he made it small enough so it could be moved if necessary.

So is living in such a small town limiting to an artist who has had articles on photography published in national magazines along with numerous photos?

"You feel isolated from the artistic community in some ways. I'm on the board of directors of the Goldwell Museum, the open air museum, and of course Goldwell is planning on establishing an artist's residency here and have workshops. I'm looking forward to that," Stephens said.

But he added, "One nice thing that happens with the Internet, I connected with artist friends."

Stephens can remember some interesting incidents during his photographic career in Beatty.

"Over the years I have scared my wife half to death taking lightning photos in Rhyolite during thunderstorms at night," he said. "I was out there doing that once and this bat landed on my back at two in the morning in the middle of a thunderstorm."

Burros are sometimes a pest in Beatty, he said. One time he photographed seven burros in front of someone's house. One night there was a sheriff's car in front of his own house, and he looked out to find a French tourist had hit a burro.

Stephens is also a painter who enjoys executing landscapes. He sells some of his paintings at Lost River Trading in Beatty.

"I'm beginning to get to the point, photographically, I'm almost exhausted. I need to move out more. I have pretty thoroughly explored the desert around here and most of the locations I have shot multiple times," he said.

Stephens said he formerly had a photography class at Beatty High School.

"It was a little problematic because of the difficulty in supervising kids going back to the darkroom. In fact, one thing we're trying to do before I get out of here is sell off our film cameras that we had," Stephens said.

Stephens remembered one student who went on to attend the Brooks Institute, a distinguished photographic school. That student went on to shoot swimsuits and surfing, at one time worked for the San Francisco '49ers and was the editor for the official photo magazine for the Athens Olympics.

When it comes to students in general, Stephens said, "What really I feel good about is the success of the students you see, what they've done with their lives and sometimes they surprise you. You can have students who are just downright knuckleheads in school and they turn out OK. That's real satisfying."

Like other longtime teachers, Stephens said some students dreaded school while they were in class, but came back to thank him later in life.

"You have to remember it is about the kids. You know what they call tough love, you have to have that," he said.

Now that he's retired he plans to do more painting.

Stephens said he will stay in Beatty at least until his wife retires from the post office, in five to seven more years.