AquaNew Team Member Spotlight: Steve Browne

steve browne“We’ve got the greatest customers in the world.” Steve Browne will sincerely tell you. Most people know Steve as one of their favorite Watt-Ahh® delivery drivers, but may not know that this gentle soul loves sailing, is an avid reader and enjoys ballroom dancing. An adventurer at heart, he’s also done his fair share of traveling, but still calls Venice, Fla. his home.

Steve and his two sisters moved to Florida with their parents at a young age because his father was an Episcopalian minister who founded St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Venice. Steve confessed that he was a bit of a hell-raiser back then, neither adopting his father’s spiritual teachings nor his mother’s gift for art. However, he was a semi-skilled mechanic, and at age 20, he enlisted in the Coast Guard and spent eleven months aboard the USCGC Androscoggin during Vietnam.  “Both good and bad,” Steve said, “It was a learning experience.”

After his return home, he spent the subsequent years working in business management, as a bridge tender for the Sarasota County Government and, finally, as a legal assistant before going into semi-retirement. Now, at age 65 and with his two children grown, he’s enjoying his stress-free life.

“I look forward to seeing our customers each week,” he said, recounting stories of the difference Watt-Ahh® has made in their lives as well as his own. Steve values the time he spends getting to know each of AquaNew’s patrons. “They always ask me why I’m so happy, and I tell them it’s because I’m high on life. And, that’s the truth. I’ve always had a positive outlook.” When asked how he hopes people regard him, Steve answered, “I hope they see that I’m a person who cares.”