Steve Swayze

Portland Tribune article of Steve's passing

Gallery of Steve's telescopes

Steve Swayze passed away in November of 2021. He was one of the top opticians in the country, and his veneered telescopes are well recognized world wide for the craftsmanship and optical quality that Steve is known for. The telescope which Steve is most well known for, other than his optical mirrors, is probably the 40" inch that he ground, polished, figured, and built with the help of his brother Bruce, shown here. Bruce is at the base of the ladder, while Steve is up at the eyepiece. After Steve died, I thought the positioning of Steve on the ladder was appropriate. I still talk to Bruce to this day, and I keep in contact with the Swayze family at large. 

Steve was one of the nicest persons you could ever meet, and the excitement he had when it came to making mirrors and telescopes was evident. Steve was also a true ATM'er at heart- he loved building telescopes. He kept on building telescopes right up until he became ill and passed away. His 24" f/3.17 was his last scope, which I finished and named after him. 

Steve also ran his own successful business, Swayze Optical in which he re-figured mirrors for customers. If someone had a commercial scope like a Meade, Celestron, etc, they could send in their mirror to Steve to have him re-figure it for a top-shelf premium mirror that exceeds 1/10 wave. The figure on a Swayze mirror is nothing short of perfection and a sight to behold in a ronchi tester. 

How did I come to meet someone like Steve? Well.... 

During an Indian summer back in 2010, across many consecutive clear nights in November and December of that year, I recall looking up to the nighttime sky and wishing I had a telescope. 

One weekend during that winter, I found a telescope for $20 off Craigslist and drove 30 miles out to Hillsboro to pick it up. On a clear night, I looked at the moon and some stars through the $20 telescope, and the views were terrible, but my interest was piqued! I looked on the internet and read about John Dobson, a former monk who made his own mirrors and telescopes using basic off the shelf supplies. 

Given my background experience of building computers, I decided to try building a telescope. I did some reading, and read about a mirror maker named Steve Swayze who makes mirrors. His mirrors are well regarded and considered some of the finest mirrors in this country. It also so happened that he lived locally, in Portland Oregon. 

So I contacted him, and he responded. The rest is history, we became the best of friends across the decade spanning the 2010's before his death in 2021. 

I fondly recall the many dinners I had with Steve and his mother on the weekends I would work on mirrors at his shop. Many nights, I would bring Papa Murphy's, and we would cook the pizza in his mother's house right up the driveway from his shop. Often, his mother would make peach cobbler or other desserts, and we would enjoy a dessert break in her kitchen on long nights of mirror making. 

He helped me grind, polish, and figure the mirror for my first telescope, the 10" f/5.6 Gustav IV, named after my son. You can read about that build on this website, along with my other builds. I remember bringing the 10" home every weekend from his shop to polish, polish, polish, and polish it. My wife helped polish it too. 

Since that project, I've gone on to complete a 17.5" build, a 24" build, and other projects. I'll add more telescope projects here as I start and build them. 

Steve Swayze was a significant influence during the 2010's, and my time with Steve shapes my world view to this day.