Gene Stevens, Post Time USA publisher, dead at 81

Gene Stevens, the publisher of the Florida-based Post Time USA for nearly four decades, died on May 13 at his home in Miami, according to accounts from friends. Stevens, who had diabetes, was 81.

Born in Brooklyn, Stevens founded Post Time USA in 1973 with several partners. The publication, which was shuttered in 2010, typically contained several stories and columns on horse racing topics and sometimes hundreds of color photographs of personalities from the racing, show business, and political spheres.

Stevens, who typically wore expensive, sometimes garish suits, was continually trailed by a photographer for Post Time USA as he made the rounds at racetracks and racing functions. He usually appeared in the photographs of celebrities that were published in Post Time USA.

Nevertheless, in its heyday Post Time USA featured columns and articles from numerous Eclipse Award-winning writers, and it also contained a long-running column from the consumer advocate and sometimes political candidate Ralph Nader.

“Gene Stevens won’t soon be forgotten by the racing community,” wrote Bernie Dickman, a former editor of Post Time USA, in a column about Stevens’s death. “He created something unique because he was unique himself. Gene was the Barnum and Bailey of racing, and the sport will never see another like him.”