In 2024, Diane and Stephen, moved to North Florida near The University of Flor- ida to be with their kids, and at age 66, he applied for his Master’s Degree in Art and Technology. Their home seems to be surrounded by a Jurassic park. The dinosaurs are gone, leav- ing small lizards. The pterodactyls are hum- mingbirds and butterflies. The world has been tamed. There are roads and walkways, electricity, computers, air conditioning, cars, and a flat-screen TV hanging on the wall. Stephen spends most of his time on the computer. Diane is a Real Estate agent. They work well together. She is gregarious. He is most days on his desk. The volume of his art- work flows fast; documenting it is a more te- dious process. Born in Chester, Pennsylvania, May of 1958. He was the 3rd of four children of Herman and Dorothy Shooster. His parents are both first-generation Jewish Americans. Their families came from Russia, dirt poor. Today, we know that region as the Ukraine. Stephen graduated from The University of Florida in 1982, with a degree in Fine Art and a minor in Architecture. Upon graduation, he worked with his father at his small telephone answering service. It had ten employees. The timing was perfect. By 1988, 800-num- ber toll-free calling was rolled out and to cap- ture some of this business, they created a call center. Stephen built the technology mostly from scratch, earning a software patent along the way. “Whether using a brush or a keyboard, the creative process remains: problem-solving, experimentation, and pursuing beauty. The medium may differ, but the artist’s intent endures.”
- Shoosty As the company grew, nine of his fami- ly members joined. In 2012, his father won The Sun Sentinel’s Excalibur Businessman of the Year Award for Broward County, Flor- ida. Four days later, he was diagnosed with leukemia. Seven months later, he was gone. For the next seven years, Stephen spent two hours each morning writing his father’s bi- ography. The company peaked at 3,000 employees before it was sold in 2019. The client list was filled with the finest companies in the world: National Geographic, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, Southeast Toyota, Crate&Barrel, Zara, Tory Burch, Hermès, Wolford, Lacoste, and many more.
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