Stephanie Andras Roumell Stern, a fierce, kind, and generous force of nature, passed away peacefully at 87 on August 9, 2025, in the Berkshires, a place she passionately loved for its hiking trails, waterfalls, rich history, and wildlife visitors. She was surrounded by her loving family and friends, including her husband Richard, daughter Ali, and close friends Susanne Page Stretch and Claire Stretch. As prayers were read and messages from her grandchildren, River and Daisy, were shared, she passed from this life.

​Born on May 30, 1938, to Stephen T. Roumell and Vilma Andras, Stephanie grew up in New Buffalo, Michigan, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Her mother, born in Romania, was publisher of five local newspapers including the New Buffalo Times typeset, printed and folded in their backyard, eventually sold and still in publication today. Her father born in Athens Greece, was a pioneering attorney running his practice from their home eventually taking cases to the Supreme Court.  Stephanie would take photos of events for her mother's paper in a full frame Speed Graphic camera.

A true daredevil, she would loft off bridges into the lake, leap across icebergs in the winter, and skate the frozen Galien River. When boys told them girls couldn't join the baseball team, she and her friends famously stole the bases until they were allowed to play. A lifelong athlete and a terrific downhill skier, she became a lifeguard and joined a Chicago AAU swim team. Though the University of Michigan swim team would only allow her to join synchronized swimming, her passion for sports never faded. She loved horseback riding and was happiest on a ten-mile hunter's pace loop, jumping fences and hedges with her beloved horse, Charm.

Her love for the outdoors was a constant throughout her life; she, Richard, and Ali skied every winter weekend in the Berkshires of Massachusetts and throughout Vermont, and took numerous ski vacations to the Rocky Mountains, especially to Sun Valley, ID, Taos, NM, and Vail, Colorado.

​Stephanie's professional career was as dynamic and trailblazing as her personal life. She began her journalism career writing for the Michigan Daily under editor Tom Hayden. She went on to become the first woman at the United Press International Newark Bureau around 1968, and her career included stints at Look Magazine and the Bergen Record.

It was at UPI that she met her husband Richard Stern. They were married for 55 years, and their first date took place in Cape Cod on July 20, 1969, the very day Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. They were a deeply committed "family career team," with Stephanie fiercely proud of Richard's numerous awards as a Senior Editor at Forbes, and he standing proudly by as she broke barriers for women in journalism. After working for a small paper in Long Island City, she became the first woman news director in New York at WOR television. However, in 1974, after being asked to train a younger, largely unqualified male for a deserved promotion to News Director —a job she was already performing—Stephanie hired the firm of famed civil rights attorney William Kunstler, who had famously represented the Chicago 7. She achieved a settlement from WOR in what became one of the first gender discrimination cases in journalism.

She would later become the first female Chief Assignment Editor at WNBC TV News. While at WNBC, she won an Emmy Award for an investigative story that exposed New York City's misuse of a billion-dollar block grant during the city's bankruptcy. The report, which showed images of a burning Bronx, named greedy city Housing Preservation Department officials who had left residential buildings in disrepair. The department’s leaders left the city soon after the story aired.

​In 1986, following the advice of longtime friend and mentor, Muriel Siebert—the first woman to hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, she pivoted careers at age 50. She earned her MBA from the NYU Stern School of Business while working to establish Stern & Co. with Muriel Siebert & Co. and Merrill Lynch's Deaf and Hard of Hearing Investor Services among her first clients. Her husband, Richard, left his role as an award-winning Senior Editor at Forbes Magazine to join her in 1992, and together they grew Stern & Co into a successful PR and Investor Relations firm, representing notable clients like Panera Bread and Edward Jones.

​Above all, Stephanie will be remembered for her fierce and authentic kindness. Her signature affection for those she loved was calling them "babe," and the number of friends and family she emotionally adopted provided loving guidance and mentorship is bountiful.

In March 2023, her final Facebook post perfectly captured her truest essence: a message that read, "Doggies…I love doggies…I just want the world to be good to dogs….real good." Her unlimited capacity for kindness extended to all "furry and feathered friends," and her modeling of boundless generosity influenced her daughter Alison's mission-driven community and public service.

She was especially proud of Alison, who, in addition to co-founding Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife (CLAW), serves as the Public Information Director of the Los Angeles Civil Rights Department. In this role, Alison often thinks of her mother while fighting hate and discrimination, carrying on Stephanie’s legacy of seeking fairness for all. Stephanie’s passions were wide-ranging, from art and music to baseball and skiing. She had an enduring love for great writing in literature and music lyrics, often stopping a conversation to point out, "that was a great line." She was always keenly attuned to news and politics, always seeking fairness and outraged by hate and discrimination. This drive to walk through every door of opportunity life opened, and her love for world travel, were passions she passed down to her grandson River. In a partial tribute to his grandmother's half-Greek, half-Romanian heritage, River spent his junior year abroad studying in Thessaloniki, Greece. In one short year, he visited 15 countries and is currently on an African safari in Kenya, awaiting his final year at Brandeis University, where he studies History and International Global Studies with a minor in Journalism.

​In a loving letter to her grandmother, 16 year old Daisy wrote, “You are the reason I love to swim, ride horses, and animals. You taught me to break barriers, to hold my own, and to not let people decide what I can and can’t do. You inspire me more than anyone else.” Stephanie’s deep connection to her grandchildren brought her smiles even in her final days, and she will be dearly missed.

​In addition to her husband, Richard Stern, and daughter, Alison Rebecca Stern Simard, Stephanie is survived by her grandchildren, River and Daisy Simard. She is also survived by her sisters, Neena Roumell, Mariana Gasteyer, and Michele Roumell; her nieces and nephews, Stephen and Ana Gasteyer, and Johanna Rich Tesman; and her great-nieces and great-nephews, Emma and Lucy Tesman, Francis and Ulysses McKittrick, and Marie Adele Gasteyer. She was the godmother to Nicholas Crawford.

​In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider a donation to Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife (CLAW) in her honor.

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