10979 Fristephenson is a small main belt asteroid named for F. Richard Stephenson, a British astronomer with important contributions to the History of astronomy and Earth's rotation at the University of Durham. It was discovered on September 29, 1973, by Cornelis Johannes van Houten and Ingrid van Houten-Groeneveld at Leiden University, analysing photographs made by Tom Gehrels with the 48" Schmidt telescope at Palomar Observatory.