Steven Robert Otto passed away at UCLA Ronald Reagan Medical Center in Westwood, California on March 14, 2021 due to complications from Acute Myeloid Leukemia. His wife, Ramona, was holding his hand. Steve was born on March 18,1949 in Grinnell, Iowa, to Robert and Eloise Otto. He attended Grinnell public schools where he met his wife, Ramona, in sixth grade. He enjoyed singing in the choir and playing drums in the band. Steve started work at KGRN as a DJ while in junior high and worked at the station part time until he completed his BA at Grinnell College. Following graduation, he was married to Ramona in Herrick Chapel on the Grinnell College campus in 1971. Steve earned a master's degree in Audiology from the University of Iowa and went on to be a staff member at the Wendell Johnson Speech and Hearing Clinic at the university. It was the early days of the development of the Cochlear Implant and Steve provided the audiology services for the team. In 1986, Steve was asked to help Cochlear Corporation, the developer of the Cochlear Implant, set up the first clinics in Australia and South Africa. Upon his return, he was offered a position at House Ear Institute in Los Angeles as a researcher. It was the beginning days of the development of the Auditory Brainstem Implant. Steve worked as part of the team and was the coauthor of numerous articles in medical journals, Pub Med and ResearchGate. Steve is survived by his wife, Ramona; sister, Kathleen McCune; brother and sister-in-law, Mark and Joyce Otto; brother-in-law, Bruce Ratcliff; brother and sister-in-law, Blair Ratcliff and Ruth Cronkite; and brother and sister-in-law, Ronda and Mike Brown. Memorial contributions may be made in Steve's honor to UCLA Health Beat AML. https://donate.lls.org/lls/donate UCLA Health is the latest major cancer research institution, and the first in Southern California to join Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Beat AML Master Clinical Trial.