Steve A. Mizera was born in September, 1940, to Russian immigrants but was raised in Catholic orphanages from the age of two to fourteen. He lived on the streets In Philadelphia were he obtained an informal education which included the repair of automatic transmissions.
In 1965 he received an honorable discharge from the United States Air Force and worked selling fruit on the international Market for four years. He spent ten years as a conductor on the railroad while attending college and law school. He also published a newspaper in a foothill community for two years.
In 1988 Steve became employed by the state of California as a secretary and retired in 2004 as an information systems analyst. After being informally adopted by Russian immigrants in 1998, he was introduced by this family to the Baptist faith and was baptised at Grace Family church in Carmichael, California.
He currently lives in the Oregon outback (Christmas Valley) and travels while pursuing a lifelong hobby of making panoramic photographs. He has detailed his unique life in his autobiography entitled: From a Dime a Dozen to Priceless.