Stephen is a 30-year veteran journalist. A graduate of Boston University, where he cut classes to go to Fenway Park, he worked for the Amsterdam Recorder before joining the Gazette's Schoharie County bureau in 1979. He has covered Saratoga County for more than 25 years, concentrating on county-wide issues and the communities of Ballston Spa, Malta and Charlton. He writes a weekly column, Off the Northway, which won honorable mention in the New York State Associated Press writing contest in 2007. People who know his laid-back manner are surprised at how much coffee he drinks.