Steven MacQueen
OBITUARY
By Tom Walker

StevenMacQueen

Steven Blair MacQueen, a longtime friend of the Island, was shot and killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, March 7, 2005. A native of Scotland, Mr. MacQueen spent two summers, 1986 and 1987, working at the French Outpost while studying economics at Glasgow University. He returned to Mackinac frequently over the years and always looked back at his time here with warmth and affection. Weeks before his death, he made his last trip to Michigan to visit old friends whom he had met during his time on Mackinac.

Steve’s time on the Island will be remembered for his distinctive creativity, energy, and good humor. His friendships were cast wide across the Island. He could be found having afternoon tea with Agnes Shine or engaged in early morning political debates in Horn’s Bar. Wherever he found himself, he was sure to bring an indelible mark of wit, charm, and insight to the table.

After he was graduated with a master’s degree in economic history from Glasgow University in 1987, he joined the merchant banking firm of Samuel Montague and Co. Ltd. in London and continued his banking career with HSBC. After 10 years of financing large mergers and acquisitions, Mr. MacQueen’s interest in world politics and economic development led him in a new direction. In 1997, he joined the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), a British government agency that provides strategic capital for responsibly managed private sector businesses in the poorest countries.

The CDC mission fit Steven well. A longtime Conservative Party member, he held fast to the idea that small amounts of capital wisely channeled into local and privately owned enterprises was the best promise for reducing global poverty. He became a leading expert in the use of microfinance to alleviate poverty, working extensively in Cuba, El Salvador, and other impoverished lands.

With the American invasion of Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban, Mr. Steven was asked to bring his considerable skills to a land where economic development had largely ground to a halt. Working with the World Bank and the Afghan Ministry of Rural Redevelopment, he created the banking infrastructure that would provide small loans to farmers and entrepreneurs in this war-torn country. Part of the Ministry’s mission was to provide alternative investment opportunities to sway farmers from growing opium poppies. Poppies grown in Afghanistan are the major source of heroin around the world. This surely put him at odds with the powerful druglords who rule much of Afghanistan.

In early March, Mr. MacQueen was completing his work with the project, which had expanded to a yearly budget of $60 million during his tenure. In mid-March, he planned to return to his American fiancée in Washington, D.C., where the couple was preparing for the arrival of their first child. On the night of March 7, a week shy of his 42nd birthday, Steven was driving home from a dinner with a colleague in a Kabul restaurant. His small pickup truck with a UN designation was overtaken by two vehicles. Witnesses from the Dutch embassy reported that one vehicle drove along side Steven’s and opened fire. Two bullets struck Steven, killing him instantly. A joint investigation by Scotland Yard and Afghan authorities is underway.

Steve is survived by his brother, Colin, a sister, Hazel, his former wife, Lianella, and his fiancée, Kay, who gave birth to his daughter, Claire Skye MacQueen, April 8.

Family and friends traveled to attend his memorial service in London July 7, the day London was paralyzed by terrorist bombings, another sharp reminder of the high costs exacted by extremist factions and of the need to continue Steven’s work of alleviating poverty and injustice that drive people into the arms of fanatics.

Steven was quick with a smile and a kind word, but would also speak his mind openly and eloquently. He will be remembered for his ability to engage in spirited but civil debate and to focus on the lives of his friends. Steve leaves behind a remarkable legacy to literally hundreds of thousands of desperately poor people whose lives he was able to improve through his belief that all people deserve the opportunity to live in dignity.

Editor’s note: Mr. Walker is a friend and former Island co-worker of the late Steven MacQueen.