Our heart is filled with gratitude, warmth, and joy! We are elated to announce that our organization has received an award in the amount of $500 from The Fanwood Foundation for our Philosophy in the Community Program(s).
We are so honored to receive an award from The Fanwood Foundation and to be recognized as playing an important part in the world of conservation, stewardship, education, and environmental leadership. Thank you so much, Sara & Tagge, for your belief in our organization and our efforts (as well as allowing us to hold some of our events on Little Falcon Farm). And thank you to Bob & Hopie for your friendship, mentorship, and continued inspiration (you are loved and missed). — Marisa
About the Fanwood Foundation
The Fanwood Foundation is a private charitable foundation started by Bob & Hope Stevens. The Fanwood Foundation supports environmental, preservation, and conservation-related efforts on a local and global scale. They have provided funding, resources, and support to such organizations as the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative, Prickly Pear Land Trust, Montana Wilderness Association, The Nature Conservancy, and many more.
The Fanwood Foundation was started by conservationists, activists, stewards, and environmental warriors, Bob & Hope Stevens. The West branch of the foundation — Fanwood Foundation West — is now overseen by their daughter, Sara, and Son-in-Law, Tagge who are continuing Bob & Hope’s efforts and the good fight for Mother Earth. Learn more about Bob & Hopi below.
About Bob & Hope Stevens
Hope Bromfield Stevens (affectionately referred to as “Hopie”) was born June 24, 1927, in Paris, France. She died Oct. 25, 2016. Hope’s father Louis Bromfield, author, farmer, conservationist and a pioneer in sustainable agriculture brought his wife Mary and eldest daughter Anne to live in Senlis, a small town outside of Paris before Hope was born. Hope remembered the years they spent there as among the happiest of her life.
Hopie’s storybook childhood in France, filled with magical experiences and adventure, ended abruptly in 1938 when Louis Bromfield sent his family back to the USA by ship due to WWII. He then returned the year after and they eventually settled in the rolling countryside of Richland County, Ohio, where Louis had spent his childhood.
There, Louis bought three adjoining farms, determined to restore them to the healthy condition he envisioned. It was then that he started his Malabar Farm project, which became famous for its innovative farming techniques. Louis was a larger than life figure throughout Hopie’s life, and influenced her tremendously.
Hope and Bob were married at Malabar Farm on Dec. 23, 1950. They started their married life on a farm nearby and then later moved to a farm near Leesburg, Virginia. Hope and Bob became very involved in politics, a passion which continued throughout their life together.
In 1966 they moved to the Bozeman, Montana, area, buying a small guest ranch in the Gallatin Canyon just north of Big Sky Ski Resort. Bob started his travel business, Montana Travel in Bozeman. Around 1990 Hope and Bob moved to the Helena area, buying property (Little Falcon Farm) in the mountains along the Marysville road. By this time they had become passionate conservationists, so they put their land into a conservation easement, and it became a nature preserve. They deeply loved their place, which became the center of their lives.
Hopie loved horseback riding, hiking, cooking delicious gourmet meals, playing piano, singing, dancing, painting, drawing, and traveling, and she was passionate about gardening, her pets, and spending time in nature. Bob loved camping, hiking, canoeing, gardening, downhill skiing, and dancing (especially to big band music) with Hopie. They both enjoyed entertaining friends wherever they lived.
Bob & Hopie were deeply beloved by his family and close friends (as well as by all those for whom their lives touched). They will be remembered always as truly good people who contributed so much to their fellow human beings and the nature world around him.
Robert TenBroeck Stevens Jr., son of Dorothy Whitney and Robert TenBroeck Stevens Sr., was born Jan. 14, 1925, in New York City. He died May 17, 2014, in Helena at the age of 89.
Bob attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, then was trained for service in the Navy at Yale. He was an ensign trained in navigation and stationed in Hawaii toward the end of WWII as a radar officer. He was greatly inspired by his father, Robert TenBroeck Stevens Sr., who was the Secretary of the Army under President Eisenhower.
Bob and Hope Bromfield were married at Malabar Farm near Lucas, Ohio, on Dec. 23, 1950. A short while late they moved to a farm near Leesburg,Virginia. While in Virginia, Bob taught geography at a small private school and was active in politics, along with Hope. While in Virginia, Bob first got into the travel business, which was a passion for him throughout his life.
In 1965, they moved to Bozeman, where he started his own travel agency, Montana Travel. Through expertise gained over his years of experience in the travel business, Bob was instrumental in bringing major airlines to Bozeman. He had a weekly travel radio program and eventually organized special tours for Europeans through several national parks in the western United States and Canada. Bob was also heavily involved with the Montana Department of Transportation and helped develop train and bus routes in the Helena area.
Around 1990, after retirement, Bob and Hope moved to the Helena area, where they bought property near Marysville (Little Falcon Farm). By this time both had become quite passionate about conservation issues so they put their land into a conservation easement and it became a nature/ wildlife preserve. They also felt strongly about the importance of alternative energy and stewardship, so they decided to build a solar home off the grid, had several forestry projects completed on their land to remove hundreds of dead trees and thin existing trees, removed wildlife-harming fencing, and made it their highest priority to remove all noxious weeds from their property.
Bob & Hopie are survived by daughters Sara (Tagge) Solaimanian and Melanie (Ron) Read; brothers Whitney (Helene) Stevens and Thomas (Pam) Stevens; seven grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and numerous friends and individuals for whom their lives have so significantly touched (which also includes countless non-human animals and ecosystems across the country).
