Swashbuckling economist Stephen Everhart never shied away from an adventure.
But according to friend and fellow Georgia State University alum Joey Smith, Everhart sounded a bit nervous earlier this year as he discussed his next challenge.
"He understood the risks involved," Smith, an associate professor of economics at West Georgia University, told the AJC Friday -- one day after his former study partner died in eastern Baghdad. Everhart, killed by a roadside bomb, was in Iraq helping implement a new business curriculum at a Baghdad university.
Smith met Everhart at GSU, which is also where the future economist met his wife, Stephanie Zobay. The couple graduated with a master’s and doctorate in economics.
"He always said he married the smartest student in the program," Smith said. Everhart and Zobay had two children together.
Everhart's oldest child, from a previous marriage, currently attends the American University in Cairo, where Everhart was associate dean of the Business School and a finance professor.
Mary Beth Walker, dean of the GSU's School of Policy Studies, told the Associated Press Everhart was a "hard worker" with a sturdy sense of humor.
"Steve was just an extremely impressive person -- confident, outgoing and adventurous," Smith said.
Few details about Everhart's death were released by the State Department, but an Iraqi police official told the AP the Columbia, S.C., native was among a group of American contractors visiting a satellite office of Mustansiriyah University in eastern Baghdad when they were hit by a roadside bomb.
Two other civilians were wounded in the attack, including one other American.
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