In Memory

Steve Mindeman

Steve Mindeman

Steve passed away Wednesday Feb 22, 2017 after a long courargeous battle with Cancer. His Memorial service will be held at 11am Tuesday, February 28th, 2017 at KIrk of the Hills. He was 56. 

 



 
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02/24/17 07:10 AM #1    

Kevin Wood

Steve was one of the first friends I had at Carnegie. He had an infectious smile and laugh was really easy going. I had discussions with him about his cancer and treatments prior to the 35th reunion, and he was very happy when we saw him there in 2014. 

I will miss him and his smile at our next reunion. 

 

K


02/24/17 12:06 PM #2    

Joel Oldham, IV (Oldham, Iv)

Thanks for sharing this with us Kevin.  Steve was always such a kind soul.  I remember fondly of our many days playing baseball in elementary school.  I was glad I was able to play golf with him at our last reunion.  He will be sorely missed.

Kin


02/25/17 04:36 AM #3    

Mike Zygmunt

 

Steve was indeed a very kind soul who I had the pleasure of knowing since elementary school.  Infectious smile, a very good way of putting it, and a memorable laugh that went with it.  His outlook on life was unique, as if he knew something the rest of us didn't, finding humor and joy in so many things which made Steve a lot of fun to be around. 

Steve also had an unpredictable streak about him. I recall one evening Steve pulling up in front of my home (Memorial days) as I was cutting the yard, Mr. Mindeman resided down the street.  He yanked out what I remember to be a seven iron from the depths of his trunk, teed up a few golf balls and proceeded to smack them high into the air raining down on the homes below.  A beautiful swing.  It was all a bit surreal, but Steve was having a tremendous time. 

His generosity was also very evident.  Steve dropped by one afternoon unannounced with tickets to Supertramp and invited me to go.  We had great fun, extremely enthusiastic, so much so I remember the girls in front of us turning around laughing at our crazy gyrations to the music. 

My fondest memory of Steve has to be when he introduced me to Jimi Hendrix in ninth grade.  The Star Spangled Banner at extremely high volume.  I have never seen anyone play the air guitar with so much passion as Steve Mindeman.  Well, with the possible exception of Jim Lind who played a mighty mean air bass guitar to Rolling Stones songs at Good Gulf.

I feel so fortunate to have had so many wonderful friends growing up in Tulsa, and Steve was certainly one of them.  As we grow older we learn to further value the precious commodity of laughter.  I don't know anyone who was around Steve for long who did not cash in on that gift.  Steve loved Monty Python, XKE Jaguars and the Beatles..."And, in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make."  I know this truth applies to laughter also.  Rest in peace Steve.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


02/25/17 02:24 PM #4    

Kevin Wood

found this from my pics at the 35th. 


03/02/17 02:29 PM #5    

Jim Lind

Agree with everything said above about Steve...he sat behind me in German class.  One thing to add was his passion for a specific type of sports car...the 1969 Jaguar XKE.  So much so that he monikered his middle name as Steve "XKE" Mindeman.  Steve spent hours of German class going through the back issues of 'Bunte' to find advertisements for his favorite XKE, and nothing brought that big smile more than finding one.


08/30/18 04:08 PM #6    

Eddie Morris

     Steve's brother, Mark, passed away on Friday, August 24, 2018, after a courageous battle with cancer. I was able to attend his funeral at Kirk of the Hills. It was just about 18 months after Steve lost his own battle with cancer. 

     Please forgive my tardiness in these comments about Steve's life.  A few interesting items I learned at Steve's funeral: St . Francis Hospital opened in late 1960, and Steve was born on February 22, 1961. He would have been one of the first few hundred babies born at St. Francis. Second, the Mindeman family were charter members of Kirk of the Hills in the '60s, which at that time met in the cafeteria at Carnegie Elementary School. Also, Steve and his best friend, Gene Howerton, shared every class together at Nimitz Jr. High.

     Steve was a "lifer" as we liked to refer to those of us that had gone all the way from kindergarten at Carnegie, through Nimitz, and then graduated from Memorial. Steve was a good athlete and we played on the same baseball and football teams early on. His father, Paul, was the coach of the Carnegie Rams football team. We used to love to wear our green jerseys to school along with our black cleats. Mr Childers, the gym teacher, would pitch a fit if you ever attempted to wear those cleats on his prized, freshly-waxed gym floor. (Mr. Childers was the resident bully at the school and once after Randy Roberts smarted off to him he challenged Randy to an after school duel with Batakas! Suffice it to say that Randy barely escaped serious injury and was rarely heard smarting off again.) Brian Castles was on our team and his father was a dentist. At the start of each season, we would go to Dr. Castles' office where he would take a mold of our teeth and make us a personalized, clear mouthpiece. At the time you could only find a generic white mouthpiece. One year we were the league champions and were playing Eliot in the city playoffs at Reed Park on the west side. It was a freezing cold night and Dr. Castles rented us a couple of giant heaters that were placed on either side of the bench. We never heard the end of it from the Eliot kids! They teased us for being those "rich Carnegie kids" with their own mouthpieces and giant heaters.

     It was always easy to be around Steve. He had a grace about him that no matter the length of time since we had last seen each other, he made it seem like we had just spoken last week. I was grateful that I had the chance to play golf with Steve, Stan Bugh, Gene Howerton, and Gene's brother, Marty, at Meadowbrook Country Club a few years ago.

     There's a quote at the end of the coming of age movie, Stand By Me, "I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12. Jesus, does anyone?" I was privileged to have Steve as a friend from childhood on and will remember him with great affection.

     


08/31/18 12:52 AM #7    

Mark Burgess

Thanks Eddie. I didn't know Steve but your tribute makes me feel like I did in some way.

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