MARK WAITE / PVT Richard Stephens, Beatty High School teacher and photographer, second from left, chats with attendees at his retirement party Friday. Advertisement

BEATTY -- Rick Johnson, a former next door neighbor of Richard Stephens, remembered the day he got a call from Richard, a local teacher and photographer.

"He said, 'Rick, there's a concert pianist coming to town' and he said 'I want a photograph' and I thought that's good you take good portraits. 'No, I want to photograph her out in the desert.' Well there's nothing wrong with that. He said 'Can you take me out?'

"'Well.' he said, 'she's a concert pianist and I want to take a grand piano out in the desert Well I had a flatbed truck so I started to get the message."

"He's got this picture in his head and then he makes it happen, that's what makes him such a great artist," Johnson said, during a retirement party held for Stephens Friday at the Beatty Community Center after 30 years at Beatty High School.

Jay Stephens, one of his three sons, said his dad would often stop the car on the highway on the way to Las Vegas or somewhere else to take a photo.

"None of us could see it. We'd go, 'dad it's the sky, I don't get it,'" Jay Stephens said. "They always came out beautiful. We learned there's beauty in all things. We have to look for those things to find them."

"Those who have been a teacher know that 30 years is quite an accomplishment," teacher Nancy Johnson said.

Stephens helped her gain some appreciation of the desert when she first moved to Beatty.

"I really had a hard time with the desert because I thought this was the ugliest sight I've ever seen," Johnson said. "He really gave me a chance to have a second look at the desert and see it was more than just rocks and air but to see beauty in it."

Master of ceremonies Dale Lerbakken taught the class next door to Stephens for the last 16 years.

"Every time we talked it was like talking to your best friend," Lerbakken said.

Another son, Jordan Stephens, said he was glad someone organized the farewell event at the Beatty Community Center, his father wouldn't want to draw attention to himself.

"My dad has a passion for learning," Jordan Stephens said. "He was always looking for new challenges and new things to learn."