Miles Gordon Stevens III, a commanding figure in New Orleans tourism who ran the companies offering steamboat rides and bus tours, died Thursday of cancer at his Metairie home. He was 75.
“He always stood for the best,” said Mark Romig, chief marketing officer of New Orleans & Company. “When Gordon Stevens was involved in a project, you knew it was going to be done at the highest degree of excellence. … He always raised the bar for people coming to visit New Orleans.”
Stevens, who never used his first name, was president, CEO and co-owner of New Orleans Steamboat Co., which owns the steamboat and is the sole owner of Gray Line Tours.
“We were all enriched by him because of the person he was,” said Greg Hoffman, chief administrative officer and chief financial officer of both companies. “He always tried to do what was best for the employees.”
Tourism, which is a major component of the local economy, took a beating after Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005.
Because visitors weren’t coming, Stevens had to lay off employees at both companies.
“He did whatever he could to make things happen and get the company going again and hire back employees,” Hoffman said. “He always thought about the employees.”
To let non-New Orleanians know that the area was struggling to recover from the storm’s devastation, Gray Line started offering Hurricane Katrina tours in January 2006. Even though there was some skepticism about showing off that part of the city, Stevens had the backing of civic and tourism leaders, Hoffman said.
“All the visitors who came, we told them the real stories about levees breaking, and we told them to consult their congressmen” to get help for the area, he said. “When the media was there to record the first tour, people came off the bus crying. They appreciated the way we presented it.”
Stevens also was founder and part-owner of four Café Beignet restaurants.
In whatever Stevens did, “he had a moral compass,” said Peter Moss, a Café Beignet partner. “He was revered by his employees and treated them like family.”
Much of this attitude was grounded in his strong Catholic faith, said Cory Howat, executive director of Catholic Community Foundation. Stevens had been a foundation board member, and he was active in the campaign to restore St. Louis Cathedral.
“He had a deep care for others,” Howat said. “He didn’t see the businesses that he grew as a means for his personal gain. He saw it as a way to spread generosity to others. “
A lifelong New Orleanian, Stevens graduated from Archbishop Rummel High School and Loyola University and served in the U.S. Naval Air Force Reserve.
He was a founding board member of French Quarter Festivals Inc. and served as its chair in 1987. Stevens also was vice chair of the Louisiana Tourism Development Council, a former president of the National Passenger Vessel Owners Association and a member of a host of boards, including the Chamber of Commerce, the Catholic Cultural Heritage Center, the World Trade Center and the St. Vincent DePaul Society.
Among the organizations that honored Stevens were the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the Young Leadership Council and East Jefferson General Hospital.
“He had a smile as big as Texas,” Howat said. “He wasn’t out there to make a profit. He was there for the betterment of the community and the city.”
Survivors include his wife, Ann Stevens; a son, Miles Gordon Stevens IV of Covington; six daughters, Emily Hardin, Melanie Hoeman and Eugenie Stevens, all of New Orleans, Amanda Friedlander of Thibodaux, Caroline Bacon of Covington and Mary Catherine Luxhoj of Savannah, Georgia; two brothers, Paul Stevens of Alexandria, Virginia, and Bob Stevens of New Orleans; three sisters, Genie Lasoski of Louisville, Kentucky, and Marylyn Dietz and Rosie Witcher, both of Baton Rouge; and 15 grandchildren.
A Mass will be said Thursday at 1 p.m. at St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church, 105 Bonnabel Blvd., Metairie. Eulogies will start at 12:45 p.m.
Two visitations will be held at Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home, 5100 Pontchartrain Blvd. — on Wednesday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., with the Rosary starting at 6:30 p.m., and on Thursday from 10:30 a.m. to noon.
Burial will be private.
This article was updated to reflect the correct number of Gordon Stevens’ grandchildren.