Death of Chaplain (COL) John E. Stevey, USA, Ret.
Posted by: Superuser on 1/19/2010
Dr. John E. Stevey, 78, of Trotwood, Ohio, formerly of Greensburg, PA died
Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010, at his residence. He was born April 8, 1931, in
Jeannette, PA a son of the late Albert and Naomi Jones Stevey. He was an Army chaplain, Vietnam War veteran, having reached the rank of colonel. In his
last assignment he the Personnel Director in the Office of the U.S. Army
Chief of Chaplains. He was later associated with the Alliance Theological
Seminary, and the Chaplain Services at the VA Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio.
In an interview with a Dayton Newspaper, John said of himself that " nothing
in his background while growing up in a small town outside of Pittsburgh
would have marked him as a chaplain. "I didn't take the church seriously," he
said. "In fact, a girlfriend I had in high school later wrote to me and said,
'How did this happen?'"
Soon after graduating from high school, where he lettered in seven different
sports, Stevey was nearly killed in a construction site accident and later in
a car crash - both in the same week.
"I got to thinking about changing my life," he said.
He went on to Bob Jones University, where a religious vocation called to him
- but so did the U.S. Army. He went off to Korea as a chaplain in 1960.
"It was a good fit for me," he said. "I'm not the holy guy who walks around
and looks pious. I felt that to be a man among men was my calling."
In 1977, Stevey retired as a full colonel from the Army, where he spent four
years training with, and ministering to, the Special Forces. He went through
its officer training school, completed all the requirements at Panama's
Jungle Warfare Center and earned his credentials as a master parachutist.
"You got to be there with the soldiers," he said. "You have to understand
what they're going through in order to help them." Members of the elite
Special Forces carry with them a laminated prayer written by John at the
request of the group's famed commander, General William Yarborough. You can
see a copy of the prayer at
http://www.prayer.sfahq.com/(and this website).
In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by a brother, Albert E.
"Butch" Stevey; and a sister, Nancy Richard. He is survived by his wife, Joan
Swiger Stevey; a son, Joel Stevey, of Trotwood, Ohio; and two sisters, Mary
Jane Connell, of Ireland, and Naomi "Cookie" Kelly, of Parker, Colo.
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