Stephen Loren Kerschner
Class of '66
March 22-1948 - April 27, 2007
Terry Barnes, Class of '66 sent an e-mail this week to inform us of the loss of another classmate earlier in the year. Terry wrote: "I wanted to let someone on your website know that the Class of 1966 lost Steve Kerschner to lung cancer in April of this year. Steve was a baritone sax player in the LHS band. He also played in the "Top Hats of Dixie" dance band formed by Roger Beck's (1965) father and the "Steve Russell Dance Band". Steve Kerschner led quite a remarkable life and fought hard to the end. He was an attorney in Chicago but also had a Doctor of Divinity degree from a Lutheran seminary in Chicago. Steve was my childhood best friend and we often spoke of our time together at LHS remembering Mrs. Koon, Ms. Faulkner, Mrs. Ezell, Mr. Blackburn, Mrs. Grilliot, Ms. Lizzie Monroe, Mr. Foley and others. Steve will be missed. Thanks for the website, it is a touchstone to a special time and place."
Steve's Obit
KERSCHNER, STEPHEN LOREN, much beloved husband of Kadesh Kerschner (Pierce), died on April 27th, 2007 at Mercy Hospital, Chicago, IL., after a courageous battle with lung cancer. After volunteering to participate in two ground-breaking and successive medical trials associated with cancer research at Rush Hospital (led by Dr. Philip Bonomi), Steve's health took an abrupt, downward spiral, after he was bitten by a condo owner's/neighbor's pit bull on March 3rd, 2007.
The eldest son of Helena (Roessler) and Robert Kerschner, Stephen was born on March 22, 1948 in Atlanta, Georgia. A self employed, Chicago attorney for over 25 years, his specialties were real estate and probate law. His office was located at 1 North LaSalle Avenue, 39th floor, which he shared with Atty. Burt Witt and Sons who were his friends, spiritual brothers and confidants whom he entrusted with the responsibilities to continue his business, micro-manage office/home finances and maintain the quality of his legal services to his clientele.
In his lifetime, Stephen also executed many pro bono cases and did volunteer work with several legal aid bureaus. As a graduate of the University of the South (Phi Beta Kappa), the Law School of the University of Illinois, at Urbana, and the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (M..Div.), Steve often described his practice of law as his “ministry in context.” He applied his theological principles and faith to legal tenets. He built relationships with his clients which transcended the mundane. “Attorney Steve” as he was amiably called, was well loved by his clients, offering them expertise, professionalism, and friendship. He was kind and someone to be trusted. He was proud of his reputation for integrity and mental acuity. Steve actually saved and cherished all the personal thank you cards that he received throughout his career.
He was a unique combination of pastor, lawyer and friend. Steve resided in the Hyde Park neighborhood for over 35 years. He was physically active and athletic, enjoying recreational activities such as swimming, walking, bike riding and oil painting. For many, many years, he was an active member of the Hyde Park-Kenwood Food Pantry, the Neighborhood Club, Art Center and the Co-op. Other philanthropic activities included, the Hyde Park and Kenwood Interfaith Council, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Vassar Club, the University of the South at Sewanee Alumni Club (Tennessee), the Save Promontory Point Committee, GBOHOA/BARCC homeowners associations and other political/civic organizations. He was a faithful financial contributor to WTTW, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, WFMT and current president of the Buckingham Loft Condominium Association, in Bronzeville.
Stephen loved his church, Augustana Lutheran. He was regularly in attendance for over twenty years. Steve was past President of the Church Council and currently served as a Council member and as a member of the Finance and Stewardship Committee. He and his wife met in Sunday Bible class in 1998, and they were married at their church home, in August of 2000, with over two hundred family and church family members and friends in attendance.
He is survived by his wife, Kadesh; his father, Robert, and brother, Richard (Huntsville, Ala); his sister, Janet (Steve Bledsoe and their children, Laura and Robert of Birmingham Ala); his stepson, Ashahed (Valerie); a step-granddaughter, Shahadah and step-grandson, Qassim; in-laws (Pierce) all native Chicagoans; paternal uncles, an aunt and cousins residing in the area surrounding Colorado Springs, Denver and Sterling, Colorado; and maternal relatives in Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. He leaves to mourn him a host of nieces, nephews, cousins and many, many friends.
A memorial service to celebrate Stephen's life was held on Sunday, May 20th, from 5:00 to 7:00 PM, at Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park, 5500 S. Woodlawn Ave. His ashes were scattered in the church's memorial garden, at the end of the service. There was a reception following, with Stephen's self-portraits, oil paintings, original prose and photographs on display. God bless you all. It was a ceremony of love, life, remembrance, joy and closure.
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Steve at the LHS reunion in 2005
Remembering Steve Kerschner
Jim Schwab
Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park
Steve Kerschner was one of those rare, refreshing people who find their way into the lives of many others and leaves few unchanged. Talkative, garrulous, always willing to extend a hand even when his own light was failing, energetic, often amusing, he was what some of us call “a force of nature.” He simply was who he was, inspired by his belief in his God but endowed with a sense of humor born of a noble humility. Sometimes he took some getting used to.
As the end neared, before he returned to the hospital, we would often have lunch together downtown at Heaven on Seven, a Cajun joint famous for its notoriously spicy food — if you ordered the right stuff. “Don't tell Kadesh what I ordered,” he told me more than once. “She's on my case about not upsetting my system.” What would upset Steve more, it seemed, was losing access to the spice of life. Bland diet be damned; Steve always wanted the gusto. There was that time, which still brings a smile to the faces of those who were there, when he was in such a hurry to attack the roast turkey at Sandra Henley's Thanksgiving dinner that he accidentally swallowed part of the plastic fork. You couldn't help but laugh. He laughed with you.
In retrospect, I have to wonder if it mattered anyway. I lost my own father the following week. When the hospital hospice staff brought him back home in suburban Cleveland two days after Steve died, the main nurse told us, “Let him eat what he wants. If he wants a beer or ice cream, what does it matter now? Let him enjoy it.” Maybe that's all Steve wanted toward the end — to continue to enjoy the enjoyable in life, knowing that time was not on his side. He knew Kadesh was watching his intake because she cared for him, but she surely knew also that Steve would not surrender willingly. That is probably why she had warned him about spicy food and the doctor's orders. She knew Steve very well by then. It was all part of the same raw energy that kept him passionately discussing philosophy and politics with me during a hospital visit just three weeks before he died.
Living life with panache, however, is not the primary or only goal for a Christian. Living it with liberating faith is. In Steve's case, it was simply Steve's way, just as helping those around him was also his way. On one occasion several years ago, when Jessica had run away, and Jean and I were out of town, it was Steve (with Kadesh) who voluntarily went knocking on a neighbor's door to find her and tried to talk her into coming home. Our daughters have come to respect Steve as if he were another uncle who can offer valuable advice and encouragement when it was most needed. He was just there for people, which explains his service to Augustana as a church council leader, as a stewardship cheerleader, and in so many other capacities. I have little doubt that Steve was often extending that little bit of extra personal help to many of us, in ways many of us know little about. And that is why he will be sorely missed. But I think of Steve as still extending that hand from another place, a tribute to how far that helping hand has always extended.