Tribute to Marti and Walter Stevens, Jr.

Walter T. Stevens, Jr., was known as Walt to most of his friends. He was the founder of the Burlington County 4-H Cloggers and inventor of Stevens Stompers® taps. An engineer, clogger and square dancer, Walt was the first to introduce and help spread clogging throughout New Jersey.

Walt had always loved to watch clogging. When he was on an engineering consulting assignment in Columbia SC, he took clogging lessons. Then he formed the Burlington County 4-H Cloggers in the late 1970's. This is one of their early performances.

Born in Chase MD, Walt joined the Navy out of High School. He was awarded a fleet scholarship to Penn State where he studied Mathematics. He met and married Marti White, a fellow Mineral Industries student, while at Penn State. Following discharge from the Navy after the war, he took a second degree in Electrical Engineering and worked until about 1970 as a defense engineer at various locations in the US and in Germany. Then he became an engineering consultant.

Marti White was active in 4-H while growing up in Mercer PA. Walt and Marti had 3 children: Carolyn, Walter Lee and Eric. Marti, a full-time Mom for 20 years, started sewing and cooking 4-H clubs. When her family was grown, she taught Junior High School Science for 20 years. Walter had 4-H clubs focusing on woodworking and electronics.

The couple considered 4-H a wonderful organization for teaching children and adolescents leadership and public speaking skills. Both enjoyed working with young people and decided that a 4-H clogging club would be a fun way to introduce both clogging and 4-H to a wider audience.

Walt experienced numerous frustrations with the cast aluminum taps his dancers and other cloggers were using at the time. At Marti's encouragement, he undertook to develop a superior tap. Our company history page gives an overview of development of Stevens Stompers® taps. Marti did most of the testing of adhesives for the initial glue-on tap designs. Both Marti and Walt traveled to workshops and conventions, introducing and testing the new design. The company has since added other clogging products: clogging shoes, clogging music, clogging teaching videos, clogging petticoats and pettipants, clogging gifts, etc.

4-H actively encourages parents to become involved. Preparing for the clogging club to dance at Wheaton Village NJ, Walt (at right with white pants) joins the other parents acting as stagehands.

Walt and Marti tried to expose their cloggers to the broader experiences of 4-H and travel. At right, Walt introduces a group of the ladies traveling with the club to the Dutch audience in the Netherlands.

The Stevens family moved back in 1989 to a family farm in Mercer PA. Meanwhile, the Burlington County 4-H Clogging club has continued to grow in New Jersey. Mrs. Stevens was pleased to hear from a former member that has married and had a child. She told Marti that she is anxious to start her own club.

Walt and Marti are survived by daughter, Carolyn, who now runs the company producing Stevens Stompers®. Walter Lee worked in the company until his death in March of 2002. Son, Eric, is an Architectural Engineer and lives with his wife and 3 daughters in Clarksville MD. Both of Walt's sisters have been cloggers: Sarah Paul and Carolyn Hall living in the Baltimore area, as well as, Walt's niece Lynn Green. Lynn is a professional musician and still clogs for appreciative audiences.