Mac Steen

Malcolm Everett Steen was born on 30 June 1948 at the West Point Army Hospital in West Point, New York. His father was a radar man with the Army Air Corps, so the family moved often during his childhood before settling in Melbourne, Florida. His mother, Ruth Steen, was remembered by the family as the source of his lifelong commitment to community and activism.

At Melbourne High School he played in a state championship game. He graduated in 1966 with scholarship offers from Florida and Georgia Tech, and chose Florida.

Steen played offensive tackle for the Florida Gators under coach Ray Graves from 1967 to 1969. Graves rated him the team's best right tackle of the 1960s. As a senior in 1969 he was co-captain with Tom Abdelnour and was named to the All-SEC first team, alongside teammates Carlos Alvarez and Tommy Durrance. "We offensive linemen have been playing all our lives without publicity, so it's something new to me," he said at the time.

On 27 December 1969 he took part in the coin toss at the Gator Bowl, where Florida upset Tennessee 14 to 13 in Graves' last game as coach. Team leaders had chosen Steen to put the players' case for assistant Gene Ellenson as the next coach to university president Stephen C. O'Connell; the job went to Tennessee's Doug Dickey.

In the summer of 1969 a job in Antigua made him part of the extended Apollo 11 support effort. The San Diego Chargers drafted him in the 10th round in 1970, but after attending their summer camp he left football for dental school at Emory University. He joined the United States Air Force as a dentist in 1974 and spent four years at Aviano Air Base in northern Italy. In 1980 he opened an orthodontic practice in DeLand, Florida, where he treated more than 8,000 patients. He was inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.

Steen met Kathy Collins during his final semester at Florida in 1970, and they married the following year. They had two children, Rusty and Katie, and two grandchildren, who called him "G-Pa".

In DeLand he was a Rotarian, a member of the Quarterback Club and a volunteer with Good Samaritan, providing dental care to people in need. He supported DeLand High School, DeLand Little League, the Police Athletic League and Stetson University. A certified master naturalist and keen cyclist, he grew coontie ferns at home and planted them around town, including at Spec Martin Stadium. His years in Italy left him with a lasting love of travel.

Steen was diagnosed with a serious illness in August 2026, a month after summiting the 4,170-foot Mount Wellington in Tasmania, and his condition declined rapidly, his wife told The West Volusia Beacon. He died at home in DeLand on Friday 2 October 2026, aged 78, with his wife and children at his side. The family did not publicly name the illness; they asked that donations be made to Blood Cancer United in lieu of flowers.

A celebration of life was held at Northwest Square in DeLand on Saturday 10 October 2026, with the family asking guests to wear casual dress and Gator colours.

Steen is remembered at Florida as the captain and All-SEC tackle of the 1969 team that finished 9-1-1, and as a central organiser of its reunions. In DeLand, former patients described him as a pillar of the community. His wife said his proudest accomplishment was changing young people's lives through orthodontics: "He built smiles, he would say."