He graduated from University High School in Columbia, SC in 1942 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy as an Aviation Cadet in October that same year.

It was during this time that Steve pioneered the use of instrumental (artificial) insemination, undertaking some of the first seminal and biochemical investigations carried out with invertebrate spermatozoa.

[citation needed] After 15 years in Baton Rouge, he was transferred to the USDA Bee Research Center in Tucson, Arizona, where, in his words, "I was my own instructor."

[1][2] Steve retired from the USDA and moved to Vacaville, CA where in cooperation with Tom Parisian, he founded the company known as "Taber's Honey Bee Genetics" in 1978.

Steve later moved to southern France before returning in recent years to Elgin[3] in his home state of South Carolina.