GREENSBORO — Deacon Ronald Frederick Steinkamp, 74, passed away peacefully on Sunday, June 10, 2018, in High Point.
Visitation will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, June 21, at Hanes Lineberry Funeral Home in Greensboro, located at 515 North Elm St.
Visitation will also be held from 10 to 10:45 a.m. Friday, June 22, at St. Pius X Church in Greensboro, located at 2210 North Elm St.
The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Friday, June 22, at St. Pius X Church by Bishop Peter Jugis. Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio, pastor of St. Pius X Church, will be concelebrant.
A second family visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday, June 25, at Duker & Haugh Funeral Home, located at 823 Broadway in Quincy, Ill. Father Tom Donovan will officiate the graveside interment service on Tuesday, June 26, at Calvary Cemetery, at 1730 North Eighteen St. in Quincy.
Deacon Steinkamp was born in Coffeyville, Kan., on Aug. 9, 1943, the eldest son of Virginia Anna Eva (Fredericks) Steinkamp Steiner and Roger Frederick Steinkamp.
He considered Quincy, Ill., his hometown.
He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1965, earning a Bachelor of Science in economics.
He began his 40-year business career with Armstrong World Industries and retired from Thomasville Furniture Industries in 2005 as senior vice president of manufacturing. He held positions in facilities in Massachusetts, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina.
He was married to his wife, Bette Jean (Werneth) Steinkamp, also a native of Quincy, for 53 years.
They moved to North Carolina in 1988, living first in Thomasville and then in High Point.
The largest part of his career was spent in Virginia, where he also served on a parish council and a building committee and was instrumental in the establishment and construction of Our Lady of Peace Church in Appomattox.
During those years, he was a Boy Scout leader and he and Bette provided a home to many children in need through foster parenting.
He was an avid gardener his entire life.
He was ordained a deacon for the Diocese of Charlotte in 1995 and was first assigned to Our Lady of the Highways Parish in Thomasville. It was there that his ministry not only supported his local parish, but it expanded into the community and reached out into roles at the diocesan level as his time permitted.
In 1999 he was assigned to St Pius X Parish in Greensboro.
He completed his Master of Theological Studies in 2010 from Quincy University.
He also served, after appointment by Bishop Jugis, as the director of the Diocese of Charlotte’s Permanent Diaconate program for five years, from 2011 to 2016, and as an advocate for the Diocese of Charlotte Tribunal for 13 years.
He was active in the Cursillo movement and in the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, and he was a 3rd Degree Knight of Columbus. Within the Cursillo Movement, he served three years as spiritual advisor from 2007 to 2009.
Deacon Steinkamp and his wife Bette shared so much of their faith together at local parish and diocesan events. They were an example of what it meant to share God’s work together as a couple. In many ways, they ministered together.
In his 23 years of diaconate ministry, Deacon Steinkamp took to heart his call to service. He always remembered the words at his ordination: "Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach."
As a permanent deacon, he was a committed man whose faith was an example to others. He not only proclaimed the Gospel, but he lived the Gospel message and brought it to others through how he lived his own life with Bette, his wife always by his side. He was a servant of the Church he loved and a man of great faith.
He is survived by his wife Bette; their daughter Emily Jane Steinkamp Gomes and her husband Mark Gomes; son Roger Craig Steinkamp and his wife Milagros; and grandsons Jonathan Gomes, Joshua Gomes and William Steinkamp. Also surviving is his mother Virginia Steiner, brother Kent Steinkamp, sister Judith Steinkamp, and many brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his father and by his sister Linda.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to the Hayworth Cancer Center, 302 Westwood Ave., High Point, N.C.
Hanes Lineberry Funeral Home of Greensboro is in charge of the arrangements.
Online condolences may be made at www.haneslineberryfuneralhomes.com.
— Catholic News Herald