Photographer. He gained recognition as an award-winning aerial Photographer as well as a United States Military Figure. He was an aerial photographer, stratosphere balloonist, twice recipient of the United States Air Force's MacKay Trophy, the Harmon Trophy, and twice recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster. He was born the third child of Nathan Whitten and Alice Anderson. With his mother's death 5 months after his birth, he was adopted by Andrew and Nancy Stevens. He had a childhood in Belfast, Maine, and attended the University of Maine, graduating in 1909 with a master's degree in Electrical Engineer. During his college days he became an experienced photographer. For the next 8 years he worked as an engineer in the gold fields of Idaho, Alaska, California and Montana. He enlisted in the U. S. Air Service in January of 1918 at the age of 31. He was commissioned a 1st Lieutenant, attended the aerial photography school at Cornell University, and served with distinction during World War I as the commanding officer of the 6th Photo Section. Critics say that he became one of the best aerial photographers of World War I, having perfected the art of oblique photography. He was awarded the Purple Heart during the war. For the next several years, he was one of the leading aerial photographers for the U. S. Army Air Service-Air Corps. He worked with the National Geographic Society throughout the 1920s and 1930s. During 1934 and 1935, he was the driving force behind the Explorer and Explorer II Stratosphere Balloon Flights sponsored by the National Geographic Society with cooperation from the U. S. Army Air Corps. On July 29, 1934, he and two other officers, Captain Orvil A. Anderson and Major William E. Kepner took the balloon aircraft, Explorer I Gondola, up but after reaching an altitude of 60,613 feet, the balloon ruptured sending the gondola plunging to earth. All three men parachuted to earth with no harm. On November 11, 1935, he and Anderson set a new altitude record of 72,395 feet inside the Explorer II Gondola. This record stood for 20 years. For these achievements, he received twice the Distinguished Flying Cross. In 1935 he and Anderson received the Hubbard Medal awarded by the National Geographic Society. Stevens's last great achievement came on June 8, 1937, when he took the "perfect" photo of the total eclipse of the sun from 25,000 feet. over Chile while working for the Hayden Planetarium. He was medically discharged from the Army in April of 1942 and died at his home. His only marriage was to Ruth Fischer on August 8, 1938. They had no children.