ID: Stephen Allard Trudel

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Stephen Trudel has lived in the Valley since 1971. For the past 24 years, he’s worked for Moving Forward, a domestic violence intervention program in western Massachusetts.

Full name: Stephen Allard Trudel

People know you as: Steve

Date and place of birth: May 1950; North Adams

Address: Florence

Job: Senior counselor at the human services program Moving Forward

Who lives under the same roof as you? Sometimes bats and ladybugs

Education: Williston Northampton School, University of Massachusetts Amherst, continuing education at School of Hard Knocks

Pets: My cat, Lionel

Hobbies: Singing, gardening, photography

Book you’d recommend to a friend: “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism” by Naomi Klein

Favorites: Movie — “Hesher”; singers — Elvis Costello and Alanis Morissette

Five items you can’t live without: My camera, a shovel, a smartphone (sad, but true), a fan in the summer and wool socks in the winter — that’s six

Last thing you purchased just for fun: A ticket to the 2013 Silver Chord Bowl

What’s at the top of your bucket list? Traveling in Italy

Life-changing experience: When my mom rescued me from drowning

Strangest job you ever held: Celebrity chauffeur

Current Facebook status: To President Obama: Leonard Peltier is an imprisoned Native American considered by Amnesty International, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, National Congress of American Indians, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Rev. Jesse Jackson, among many others, to be a political prisoner who should be immediately released

A little-known fact about you: I have no favorite color

Dumbest thing you ever did: Put my tongue on that metal post at recess in January 1957

One trend you’d like to see return: The Bauhaus art movement

What really sets you off? People taking courtesy for granted

If you could spend the day with a celebrity from any time in history, who would it be? Mark Twain during the writing of “Huckleberry Finn”

Best advice you ever got: From my Grampie Trudel: Do work that makes you proud

Favorite place to get a bite: Barney Greengrass in Manhattan for the bialys and lox

Favorite athlete: My niece Alyssa, two-time Boston University women’s lacrosse team captain, who was the America East Conference Player of the Year in 2003 and the Most Valuable Player during the 2005 conference championship

What does your ideal weekend look like? A Monday holiday

One thing you would change about yourself: I would like red hair

What gives you the creeps? The number of assault weapons in the U.S.

People who knew you in high school thought you were: A true friend

Whom do you most admire? Investigative journalists like Christopher Hedges, Jeremy Scahill and Naomi Klein for their bravery in speaking truth to power

Parting shot: Arthur Miller speaking about Mark Twain: “He never exempted himself from the travails of the people he was criticizing. Instead of saying, you are doing this, he seemed to be saying we are doing this or we are being so silly or stupid or destructive. He included himself in what was ridiculous and that’s a great art — to be able to do that without weakening the accusation”

— Keri-Ann Aubin

Editor’s Note - To suggest someone for ID, email Keri-Ann Aubin at kaubin@gazettenet.com.