Remembering Steve

By Mary O’KEEFE

This weekend a memorial service was held for Steve Fox at St. Luke’s of the Mountains Episcopal Church. Steve and I were both members of the St. Luke congregation, and we were friends though friendship was not how our relationship began.

Our journey was very rocky to say the least. On the surface Steve and I were opposites in the way we saw the world; and yet, just below the surface, we found we had very strong commonalities.

We first starting butting heads when it came to the Fire House youth center. He saw it going in one direction; I saw it going in another. But then Steve and I began talking, really talking, about the church and we found that we had some very important things in common. For one thing we both loved the church. Steve and I were both raised in the Episcopal faith, so there was that, but it was actually the history of the building at the corner of Rosemont Avenue and Foothill Boulevard where we found our foundation of friendship.

St. Luke’s sanctuary was built in 1924 with rocks from the Angeles National Forest. The Fire House was also built during this time and was originally Fire Station 19. When you walk onto the church grounds you feel a sense of calm that only respected history can bring. There are plaques that honor those who have long passed.

This is where Steve and I found our common ground. It seemed so ridiculous that we had wasted so much time arguing with each other when, in fact, we wanted the same thing – we were just coming at the subject from different starting points.

To say Steve loved St. Luke’s is an understatement. He threw himself into the history of the church he had known for decades. Every repair, whether large or small, he oversaw with exact detail. He searched the records to find out about the early days of the church. It wasn’t that he only loved walking the grounds – he was part of it.

It’s funny to think, but Steve and I really began to bond over rats. We had rats at the church and at the Fire House, and it was awful. We made sure all the food was put in containers that would keep out rats, or at least make them work harder to reach. He and I would actually report sightings of rat droppings. We would strategize on how to get rid of the menacing creatures. To be honest, I didn’t think of it being fun at the time but now I miss our rat texts/conversations.

Once the rats were under control he then started sharing how he would be moving forward on other areas that needed repair. Like I said, this was an old church and it needed a lot of tender loving care so there was always something to do.

Steve got sick a while back and it did not look good for him but, miraculously, he recovered and although he was slowed he did not stop.

Thanks to the Mary Pinola Foundation, the Fire House was able to install cameras around the church’s grounds. Steve was constantly watching those camera feeds. There was a fight at the parking lot one day; the sheriff’s station needed to view the footage. Steve called my son Charly to help download the footage. The church was vandalized recently by someone who threw rocks through the windows. Steve called me though he had already called the sheriff’s station but he wanted me to follow up. I would walk the grounds just to check on things; Steve would call me to say “hi” because he was watching the camera feeds.

He called me in mid-December very concerned about a woman who appeared to be homeless. It was nothing new to see homeless people at the church but this woman had a young child with her. Steve was very worried about the child because it was cold and had been raining. He asked me if I would go up and see if she needed help; of course I went. The woman was indeed homeless and did have a child with her who was around 5 years old. We spoke, I offered help, she refused but said she had friends that she was going to for shelter. She walked away from the church and I followed her to the Marketplace parking lot where she met up with a friend. I let Steve know what happened and he asked me to follow up because he was so concerned about the child. I called the authorities for help and have continued to follow up on her.

The last time I heard from Steve was on Dec. 24 when we were texting each other about … rats. Yep, they came back during the winter break but we were on it and were taking care of it right away. Even now I feel Steve watching over the church and Fire House, keeping a loving eye on the place he loved so much.

One of Steve’s main focuses was to repair the St. Luke’s of the Mountains chimes. There were a gift from the Robert Watchorn family in 1926 in honor of their son who died during WWI. Steve set up a GoFundMe page to help get and keep these chimes maintained. For those interested in supporting this effort, please visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/chime-tower-at-st-lukes.