Obituary of Stephen John Von Fange

A Celebration of a Life Lived With God - Steve Von Fange Steve Von Fange was born in Syracuse, NY, and enjoyed his early childhood by playing in the snow, camping and boating in The Thousand Islands, Adirondack Mountains, and also in surrounding parks. His parents, Gene and Libby Von Fange, fostered an environment of creativity, independence, and encouragement. Most of all, they loved Jesus well and shared that love with Steve and his five siblings. Steve attributed a lot of his ingenuity to his dad who wrote the book Professional Creativity and nurtured that belief in his children. Gene was transferred, by General Electric, to the Tidewater area of Virginia when Steve was 7 years old. In the first week there, Steve was awestruck to see the aircraft carrier Independence coming in from duty into the Norfolk harbor, standing only a few hundred feet away. Soon after, he caught his first shark while boating in the Hampton Roads area near the shipyards. As a young boy, Steve had one of the largest newspaper routes in Virginia that he inherited from his older brother. Being business-minded from an early age, he quickly hired two people to run the routes and collected the money each week. Between the ages of 8 and 14, Steve participated in swim leagues and had records that lasted over 25 years in both the butterfly and backstroke. In high school, Steve was very popular and always was involved in some type of leadership position or was helping in some way to organize events. He enjoyed athletics and music, where he tripled-lettered. He was the bass in a barbershop quartet and president of Varsity Chorus (The Varsity Singers), in addition to playing basketball and football. Steve learned photography from a neighbor and continued to love it all his life and taught many people photography skills. He also helped behind the scenes with YoungLife - a student ministry that his parents brought into the Chesapeake, Virginia area. During his senior year, he experienced a knee injury that took him out of sports, but God used it to get him more engaged with people - a lesson that valuably impacted the rest of his life. You may not expect to fall in love during a fifth period geometry class, but that was where Steve met the love of his life, Sharon. They continued to date as Steve attended Virginia Tech, where he majored in Finance, was a member of Beta Theta Pi, served as Head Resident Advisor in the largest dorm on the east coast, taught photography courses, and was an All-University Co-Ed Volleyball champion. Steve did not consider himself a good student, but when his roommate, Brian, gave him a business calculator and workbook, he realized that business was where his passion was and he devoured that workbook. College was also where Steve was challenged to get serious about his faith and really gave his life to Christ. From that time on, Steve continued, what he called, "stumbling forward" - sin, stumble, realize God's great love, and get up and continue to move forward zealously with God. He said this cycle was repeated over and over, his whole life. A year after Steve graduated, he and Sharon were married in 1982 and moved to Charlotte, NC. They spent the rest of their marriage growing in their relationship and their love. One way they kept their relationship strong was by prioritizing weekly date nights, regularly, for over 20 years. Steve loved flowers, and Sharon would often surprise him with them. Steve had so much admiration and appreciation for Sharon and her commitment to leave her job as an accountant to help support Steve and his commitments, as well as raising their family. Her role as a wife and mother was enormous in enabling him to minister to others and accomplish so many things in his career. Family was important to both Steve and Sharon. Early in their marriage, they began to write family history letters - written a few times a year to their future grandchildren, so they would understand how their family spent their days and how God weaved the tapestry of their lives. Steve had forethought and a great ability to live in the future. Steve and Sharon have three sons - Joshua, Jesse, and Brian. Steve always made it a priority to be actively present in his children's lives. He encouraged them to have independence and was supportive in the choices they made. His goal was to accelerate and amplify whatever they felt God was calling them to do. In his words, "I just can't describe how much I like being a father. Every season has been a delight." Following college, Steve's first job was with Parnell-Martin in Charlotte, NC. He was an assistant to the Christian owner and learned so much about how to weave the Bible into business and how to balance family and business. Prior to this experience, he thought these portions of life were always kept separate. The following year, Steve transitioned to Shelton Industries, a company that made waterbed sheets, where he briefly received the manufacturing experience that he needed to qualify into a new field of consulting at Price Waterhouse (PW)—the job that launched his career. Steve was the youngest PW consultant in the country and became their national expert regarding productive utilization of small microcomputers (PCs) within businesses. PCs were just coming into the corporate world in the early 80s. At PW he also performed productivity improvement engagements, which he loved. He made it a goal to do things "better, faster, and cheaper." Also, he conducted Information Technology (IT) audits there which brought him to Blue Cross Blue Shield of SC. In 1985, Steve accepted a position with Blue Cross Blue Shield in Columbia, SC, where he started a new internal consulting department, which eventually led to his role as a Vice President in the IT division. Steve knew that God had orchestrated the steps that led to the upward rise of his career, and he was intentional about using it for the Lord's glory. At BCBS, Steve worked directly with hundreds of very smart people who were very team-oriented, professional, and had a zeal for excellence in the roles they performed. Steve had the same boss at BCBS for 31 years and was acknowledged for having exceptional performance every year. During his time at BCBS, he felt called to integrate his faith into his business and in 2000, he initiated conversations with each workplace Christian that he knew and invited them to lunch. This was the beginning of the Christian Luncheon Club (CLC) - a group that started with four or five believers meeting monthly and grew to over one hundred. This group eventually transitioned into other deeper groups called Challenging Leaders for Christ, GRIP, and Men's Forum and women's groups. While working at BCBS, Steve took courses at the Columbia International University (CIU) Seminary toward a Biblical Certificate, culminating in the spring of 2016 when he finished the program. While at BCBS, Steve worked with a CIU professor to make a video encouraging pastors to talk to their members about workplace ministry, that is still in use by CIU faculty. He, along with other BCBS employees and his son, Jesse, helped create a series of videos on YouTube (www.youtube.com/stevevonfange) designed to encourage and instruct believers in workplace ministry. Over the course of Steve's professional time, he wrote two mission statements that he used to direct his career, as well as his personal life. They challenged him to constantly reflect on all of his decisions in order to live intentionally towards that purpose in which God made for him to do and be. Steve was known for a few things - driving a large van, his love for garage sales and thrift store shopping and, of course, spreadsheets of any kind. One way that he used spreadsheets were to train young people in responsibly managing their finances - a system he developed in his twenties. If you spent much time with Steve, you've probably received a "napkin drawing" of some kind. Steve was known for napkin drawings (sketches to help put a conversation in context). Steve had a way of using unconventional approaches in an effective way. He had a passion for encouraging leadership in others and working as a catalyst to see them fulfill their God-given potential. Steve was a regular guest speaker at the USC Moore School of Business and at Furman University where he taught a finance course to BCBS employees during a series of intensive courses there. He spoke in local high schools relating to personal finance and career direction and was a guest speaker with Youth Corps, where he also taught financial strategies. Throughout their time together, Steve and Sharon were both heavily involved in the ministry of the church - first at Northeast Presbyterian Church and later at Midtown Fellowship. Steve helped establish a Sunday School class for young married couples, served as a Deacon, an Elder/Coach, a Sunday School teacher, served on the financial and planning committees, and helped raise thousands of dollars for youth camps and mission trips by creating a "stock market" fundraiser where students could buy shares of stock based on how many tickets they sold for events. He often served as a mentor to young men in the church, and he and Sharon were certified in Prepare and Enrich—a program designed to improve marriage communication. Since high school, Steve was always a part of a small group ministry, and he led many small groups. Steve always encouraged growth in the members of their groups and he liked to give people "touchdowns" for taking spiritual next steps. When Steve's sons went to Clemson, he bought two condos that they collectively called the "TI House" (Tillman International). Steve had a vision to use these condos to invest in the students who rented them and, in turn, financially bless ministries around the world, through them. He taught each of the renters how to develop a strategic giving plan and would allow them to give a couple of months of rent to their ministries to help get them vested in them. During this time, he was also intentional about driving to Clemson, not for the football games, but to meet with the renters, regularly, as part of a mentorship on a wide variety of topics that the renters voted on each semester. His initial goal for the 8 years that his sons were at Clemson was to invest in 20 people. At the end of the 8 years, he had mentored 28 students and also exceeded his giving goal. Steve loved to play basketball and ping-pong and would often start out playing with his left hand, only to switch once the game got too close. He liked to keep sports light hearted and make people laugh, which was a skill that he learned from his high school knee injury. Steve loved food, specifically BBQ, and he took great enjoyment in taking people out to eat. He enjoyed creating events like camping trips and cookouts to get people more connected and to help them use their gifts to move closer to each other and closer to God. Over several summers, Steve and Sharon took their sons to visit the four quadrants of the United States, which was a life goal for Steve. He was also passionate about making sure his sons had an international view of the world - teaching them math in Spanish, at a young age, and taking walks to "China", which he called the cul-de-sac at end of the road that they lived on. He would correct any of the boys when they said something was "weird" or "wrong", explaining that it was just "different" and taught them to be more accepting. Whenever his sons would visit a new country, he would proudly hang a flag from that country on the walls of their lounge. By the time he and Sharon moved downtown, the walls were fully covered with flags. In 2012, Steve and Sharon purchased two condos and moved downtown. They lived in one and called the other one "The Retreat" - a ministry place for helping to restore married couples, leaders, pastor teams, life groups, coaches, and even writers. They usually blessed 30-40 people a year by letting them use this free space as a getaway in order to help them move forward. Steve enjoyed photography and loved helping others develop their talent and often helped them purchase their first camera with a 'special' deal—just another way that he was generous with his time and money. Steve loved to help others succeed. He was also a member of the United Way Tocqueville Society. To summarize, Steve just really loved to help people as a reflection of God's love for him. Occasionally, his help wasn't truly "help", but Steve always truly thought and believed that it was. He always liked to utilize Myers Briggs, DISC, and Love Languages (studies of personality and temperament) to quickly adjust to the unique qualities of others in order to better help them. Having a quiet time with God, every morning, was a solid part of Steve's life for 30 years. He was inspired and encouraged by John 5:19-20, "So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing." The fact that Jesus could do nothing apart from God the Father, while on earth, was impressed upon Steve. He understood the deep need for his daily/hourly reliance on God to direct his steps through prayer. In Steve's words, "God allows my table to be set perfectly each day." This mentally gave him the ability to quickly adapt to change, knowing that his day was ordained by the Lord. Without God, Steve could do nothing of lasting value. Steve is now alive and well with the God he loved and is getting a "well done" from Him, due to the painful efforts of Jesus Christ, who died to completely cover all of his sins and screw-ups, so that Steve is allowed to live a life with God and his friends forever and ever and ever. If you would like to honor Steve, contributions may be made to either of the following: -Midtown Fellowship (http://midtowncolumbia.com/stevevonfange ) -Richland School District One (http://www.scfutureminds.org/donate/support-our-district/?d=dis&ref=Richland+One) If you would like to celebrate Steve's life, come join us on Monday, January 30th at Midtown Fellowship, 1800 Blanding St., Columbia, SC 29201. Visitation starts at 1 p.m. followed by the service at 2 p.m. Casual dress (Steve didn't like wearing a suit and tie, so he sure wouldn't want you to wear one for him, either!)".