Fall 2011 • Vol. 28, Issue 1 - Eagle Online - Niagara University

Remembering Brother Steve
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In Brother Stephen J. Kennedy, C.M.,
cheerfulness and charity went hand in hand.
His desire to “work with the people” led him
to donate countless hours in service to the poor
and underserved in the Niagara Falls area,
both while working as postmaster at Niagara
University, a position he held for 24 years, and
after his retirement in 1987. On Friday, Oct. 7,
during a memorial Mass in Alumni Chapel, the
Niagara University community celebrated the life
of Brother Steve, who passed away on Sept. 27 at
the age of 84.
A native of Philadelphia, Brother Steve entered
the Congregation of the Mission in 1957 after
serving in the Navy during World War II and
pursuing a career in business. He was assigned to
the Vincentian Motherhouse in Germantown, Pa.,
where he served in a variety of administrative
posts. In 1963, he was assigned to Niagara
University as postmaster of the university’s Post
Office, a position that enabled him to get to know
hundreds of Niagara students. “I think I knew
every student by their first name,” he once said.
He so enjoyed his friendship with the students
that he took advantage of opportunities to work
with them in extracurricular pursuits, including
coaching the university’s golf team and
moderating the men’s and women’s hockey
teams. When the women’s team earned a berth
into the NCAA Frozen Four in 2001-02, the
players received rings for their achievement.
Brother Steve received a ring as well and wore
it often. “e ring meant a great deal to him,”
the Rev. Joseph Hubbert, C.M., ’73, Vincentian
religious superior, recalls.
Brother Steve also enjoyed the company of his
confreres and would initiate opportunities for
them to get together, often over Chinese food
or as members of a ursday night bowling
team. e team was “more camaraderie than
competition for him,” says Father Hubbert.
But what Brother Steve was most passionate
about was helping the less fortunate in his
community. “is is what life is all about: Love thy
neighbor — not abstractly, but concretely,” he once
said, and his life clearly reflected this conviction.
He donated countless hours to a variety of
charitable causes in the Niagara Falls area on
days off and after hours during his postal career.
He prepared meals, attended to clean up and
provided hospitality to patrons of Maranatha
House and the Lampstead, two projects of
the Catholic Worker; tutored disadvantaged
elementary and high school students; started a
program to teach African American history in
local churches and in the Niagara County jail;
and helped to bring a literacy program to the
area’s maximum-security prison.
Retirement afforded Brother Steve the time to do
full time what he had been doing on a part-time
basis, and, in 1987, he established the St.
Vincent de Paul Center of Niagara University.
Under his direction, the center distributed millions
of pieces of clothing, furniture and foodstuffs to
disadvantaged families in the area and collected
toys for needy children each Christmas. He also
had a great appreciation for Native American
culture and worked with members of the
Tuscarora Indian Reservation in Niagara County
and the Six Nations Reservation in Canada. His
enthusiasm for and devotion to this work inspired
hundreds of Niagara University students to follow
his example. ese charitable deeds, he said,
rounds out their education.
For several years, Brother Steve could be found
behind the wheel of a 14-foot van that was
donated to the St. Vincent de Paul Center. With
it, he would make his rounds through the
community, collecting clothing, appliances and
household goods for the distribution center. Jan
Reele, who has worked for the Vincentians for
the past 12 years, recalls that when Brother
Steve drove his truck onto the Tuscarora
Reservation, the children would run toward it
“as if (he) were Santa Claus.”
In recognition of his selfless dedication to the
underserved, Brother Steve was honored with a
number of awards, including the Niagara
University Caritas Medal and the President’s
Medal from St. John’s University.
On Tuesday, Oct. 4, a funeral Mass was held
at St. Vincent’s Seminary in Philadelphia.
Brother Steve was laid to rest that afternoon
at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Princeton, N.J.
“Brother Steve Kennedy was our postmaster for
many years, but it was his compassion, service of
the poor and his consistent smile and joyful
spirit that made him a very special person here
at Niagara University; he was indeed a second
Vincent de Paul for us and the Western New
York community he loved to serve,” said the
Rev. Joseph L. Levesque, C.M., Niagara
University president. “Brother Steve will live
forever in the hearts of everyone who knew him.”