Steve Bezuk; He Died Doing What He Loved - White-Water Kayaking

Long after the memorial service for him, friends and co-workers of Steve Bezuk were still finding out what his life really was all about.

``I knew he was Hungarian and he did some canoeing, but I had no idea he did all of this. He just never talked about himself much,'' said Ken Leask.

Mr. Bezuk, 52, drowned Nov. 29 while kayaking alone in the rampaging waters of the flooding Green River above Black Diamond. Although the uninitiated might call that trip life threatening and crazy, for Mr. Bezuk it was almost routine.

White-water kayaking ``was his life. He always felt he didn't do enough. He was always looking for a new challenge to test himself,'' said his wife, Myra.

Mr. Bezuk had kayaked through the Green River Canyon dozens of times and the flooding, rather than frightening him away, only increased the attraction, she said. ``He died doing what he loved.''

It was a short trip compared with what placed Mr. Bezuk in the Guinness Book Of World Records. That was a 3 1/2-month solo kayak trip the full 3,500 miles of South America's Amazon River.

``He did that by himself. I mean there was no one along for support or anything. And he didn't have enough food, and he almost starved to death. But he worked his way out and survived,'' said Myra.

That was in 1970. Leask, who met Mr. Bezuk when he was hired in 1974 by the Seattle Engineering Department as a bridgetender, was surprised to learn of his friend's accomplishment. ``I didn't know that. He never mentioned it.''

Nor did Leask and others know about how Mr. Bezuk left his native Hungary. It was in a tank Mr. Bezuk and a guerrilla unit he organized had captured from invading Russian troops in November 1956.

They battled the Russian army until the outcome was obvious and then crashed across the border to freedom. Mr. Bezuk was 18 at the time and left behind his parents, a brother and a sister.

His bitter opposition to communism began a year earlier, according to a sorrowful letter to his wife from an uncle. Mr. Bezuk had ranked second in all of Hungary for entrance to medical school. He wanted to do medical research.

Hungarian authorities, however, placed a condition on Mr. Bezuk's entry to medical school. He would have to join the Communist Party. When he refused, authorities barred him from medical school and ordered him to work as a street sweeper.

When he arrived in the United States, Mr. Bezuk found a low-paying job in a New York City bank, but a short time later entered the University of Pennsylvania.

Carrying a full class load and working to pay his bills, Mr. Bezuk graduated with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering but was forced to drop out of school just short of a master's degree because of a serious leg injury.

Mr. Bezuk was hired by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1962 and worked as an oceanographer on several of the agency's ships based in Seattle, including the maiden voyage of the Oceangrapher. At one time, he was second in command of the Pathfinder.

He quit the survey to make the Amazon trip and then returned to Seattle, hoping his Amazon journal would be published. It was not and he worked at odd jobs until being hired by the city.

Since 1974, Mr. Bezuk had worked the swing shift at the Fremont Bridge. Days were for hobbies. He also was a sky diver, rock climber and pilot.

``He wanted to do 100 white-water rivers, and he almost made it,'' said Myra.

Mr. Bezuk was a member of the Washington Kayak Club and the International Long River Canoeist Club, based in England. Besides his wife, he is survived by relatives in Hungary.