[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]

Fr. Marvin Steffes, C.PP.S., 80, of St. Charles Center, Carthagena, Ohio, died late Monday afternoon, August 29, 2011, in Community Hospital, Coldwater, Ohio, after suffering a stroke.

He was born February 14, 1931, in Detroit, to Lawrence and Anna (Schumaker) Steffes.  He entered the Missionaries of the Precious Blood (C.PP.S.) in 1949 and was ordained in 1958.

Fr. Steffes was involved in parish ministry, teaching and administration through much of his life as a priest. After a year at his home parish, St. Anthony, in Detroit, he became an assistant pastor at St. Mark in Cincinnati. He then spent the next 10 years in education, teaching at Carroll High School in Dayton; and principal at Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa, Calif.

He was elected provincial councilor and named treasurer of the Province of the Pacific, of which he was a member, in 1970. In 1974, his fellow Community members elected him provincial director.

In 1978, Fr. Steffes became a chaplain at Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, Santa Rosa, Calif. He returned to parish ministry in 1979 as pastor of St. Edward Church, Newark, Calif., where he served for 11 years. Parishes where he served later in life, all in California, included St. Barnabas Church, Alameda; St. Anthony Church, Manteca; San Augustin Church, Scotts Valley; St. Joseph Church, Spreckels; and Christ Child Church, Los Gatos.

In 2003, Fr. Steffes retired to the provincial center in San Leandro, Calif., and lived for a time in the Community’s Sonnino House in Berkeley. In 2008, he moved to St. Charles Center, where he remained until his death.

Fr. Steffes is remembered for having an open and generous heart. Fr. Jeffrey Keyes, C.PP.S., now the pastor of St. Edward Parish in Newark, said parishioners there still  remember him as a “wonderful pastor who had a way with words.”

Fr. Jerry Stack, C.PP.S., remembers coming as a young teacher to Cardinal Newman High School when Fr. Steffes was the principal. They had a warm working relationship then Fr. Stack watched Fr. Steffes evolve into many other roles in parish ministry and Community leadership. “He was engaged in a number of ministries in which he had great responsibilities, and he always approached these with a great sense of faith, commitment and professionalism,” Fr. Stack said. “He was the kind of man who was ready to serve even if it was in a situation that he might not have chosen.”

Text and photo courtesy of Jean Giesige, Cincinnati Province[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]