Star athlete in college held jobs as accountant

7/15/2002

ADRIAN - Kenneth L. Stepp, a former star athlete at Adrian College who was inducted into its Athletic Hall of Fame last year, died in his home Thursday after a series of strokes. He was 75.

Mr. Stepp was a standout football player, miler, and relay runner at the college, where he studied sociology and journalism and graduated in 1951. A leg injury took him out of the football team's lineup his senior year, but he was at every game assisting the coach, his wife, Ioan said.

“He was a defensive end who won varsity letters two years. He set records in football and track. We were married in his junior year,” Mrs. Stepp said.

When the college inducted Mr. Stepp into its Athletic Hall of Fame last fall, he joined Mrs. Stepp, who joined in 1986. They are the only couple so honored.

While a college student, Mr. Stepp worked as a reporter for the Daily Telegram and was a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He later served on the college's alumni board.

He worked for 19 years as a cost accountant for Kewanee Manufacturing here, then taught industrial arts at the Sand Creek Schools for a year.

In 1970 Mr. Stepp moved his family to Rochester, Minn., where he took an accounting position with Crenlo, Inc.

A few years later the family moved to Sylvania and he went to work for the former Toledo Metal Furniture.

In 1976 the Stepps returned to Adrian and Mr. Stepp became a self-employed distributor of CraftLine Windows. He retired in 1990.

Mr. Stepp kept a woodworking shop in his garage and enjoyed traveling in the family's recreational vehicle, his daughter, Susan Frauenkron, said.

Mr. Stepp grew up in Indiana, Pa. During World War II he served in a photographic unit in the Army Air Forces in the Pacific theater.

His memberships included the United Methodist Church, for which he taught Sunday School and was an usher.

Over the years he was president of the PTA at Lincoln Elementary School here and of the Adrian Jaycees.

Surviving are his wife, Ioan; daughters, Susan Frauenkron and Nancy Schoensee; son, Steven; brothers, Thomas, John, and Roger, and seven grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Saturday in the Braun Everiss Wagley Funeral Home, where the family will receive friends an hour earlier.

The family requests tributes to Hospice of Lenawee.