Obituary of Richard M Stefanik

STEFANIK, Richard Michaels

Passed away in his sleep on Sunday, September 2. He was six days shy of his 70th birthday. He is survived by his wife, Karen (K.C.) Craig, and three sisters, Jean Stefanik Miller of Orlando, Irene Bunin of The Villages, Dorothy Appleton of NYC, and his nieces and nephews. Richard was a prolific writer, director, producer and actor. He was a pillar of the Florida film community, having directed two feature films, most recently "Nouveau Lyndia," as well as four short films and having written five novels. Mathematics also played a prominent role in his life. He has two Master's degrees in the Philosophy from UC Berkeley and Georgetown University. He taught Philosophy of Science at USFSP and other classes at SPC. He studied mathematics and Catagory Theory at Linacre College in Oxford. Richard's beautiful, loving, kind and caring soul will be missed by his family and friends beyond measure. His memorial services will be held at Anderson McQueen on Saturday, September 22 at 1 pm. A celebration gathering of his life will follow at the Saint  Petersburg Country Club from 2-4 pm.

Richard was a Screenwriting Fellow at the American Film Institute, where he wrote, directed and produced a dramatic movie, Michael & Christina. He is also Producer-Director of the comedy movie, Henry Dodd, broadcast on Cable-TV and released on DVD in 2004. His second romantic comedy as Producer-Director is Once in a Blue Moon. He is also the Producer-Director of a short movie, The Magus, and is now in pre-production on another feature comedy, Double or Nothing.

Richard is the author of Structures of Fantasy, a screenwriting book that analyzes the dramatic and comic elements found in popular movies. This book has been chosen by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) Mentors Program for inclusion in its list of recommended screenwriting books and is described as “one of the best books on story structure.” The Structures of Fantasy book is recommended in the American Film Institute Desk Reference. A revised and expanded edition of this book has been published as The Megahit Movies. The French translation of this book was published in Paris by Editions Dixit as “Les Clés Des Plus Grands Succes Cinematographiques”

Richard has taught Story Design and Screenwriting Seminars in cities throughout the world, including London, Copenhagen, Los Angeles, Orlando, Las Vegas, New York, and Hollywood. Richard held a story development workshop, Making Megahit Movies, at UCLA Extension and gave classes on Story Structures in Megahit Movies at the Las Vegas Screenwriters Conference. He also conducted screenwriting seminars in Los Angeles at the Screenwriting Expos sponsored by Creative Screenwriting magazine. Richard taught “Story Design: Creating Popular Hollywood Movies” , “Writing Exciting Unpredictable Scripts” and “Writing Humorous Characters and Scenes” online classes for Scr(i)pt Magazine.

Richard lectured about story structure at Sherwood Oaks Meeting with Major Film Executives Workshops in Hollywood and at Sony Studios, Universal Studios,Warner Bros and at Paramount Studios. The Megahit Movies Hollywood Story Design Workshop™ was held in San Francisco, Orlando and Hollywood. He also lectured on story design at The Great American PitchFest in Hollywood. Richard lectured on story design in Oxford, England at the Oxford International Festival of Films.

Richard worked at several Hollywood studios, including Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions. He also published four novels through RMS Publications Company: Monte Carlo, Entanglements, Once in a Blue Moon, and Elixir.Richard received M.A. degrees in Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley and Georgetown University, and has studied Logic and Philosophy at Oxford University in England.