Williams, Stephen Richard

Stephen Richard Williams, 84, originally of Syracuse and recently of Penfield/Fairport, NY, passed away in the afternoon on January 26, 2025, surrounded by his beloved bride of 54 years and his cherished daughters.

Steve was salt of the earth, a straightforward and decent man. He believed in the importance of a good handshake and a well poured Jack on the rocks. Steve was a tinkerer, a woodworker, and a gardener, a man with a green thumb and a yard that showed it.  If heaven needed a handyman, it sure got a good one. Steve would have made a good short-order cook: no one made better eggs or home fries, and his chili and stews were legendary.  He was feisty and sometimes stubborn, but kind and endlessly humble.  He was an encyclopedia of unique sayings and advice (his most notable, perhaps, being “you can’t dance if it’s too windy to lay bricks”). He could walk into any room and start talking with anybody. In the end, when words were hard to come by, the one thing Steve never ran out of was “I love you”s.    

Steve lived the majority of his life in and around Syracuse, NY. Steve worked in industrial sales, including for Unifirst and Allied Industrial Laundry. After running out of things to putter with in retirement, Steve took up transporting new school buses to nearby school districts.  He was a Freemason and a member of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Camillus.

Steve was happy to be surrounded, his whole life, by women he loved.  Steve is survived by his wife Brenda and daughters Hope (Chris Vitch) and Heather (David Kloc), as well as his step-granddaughter Evelyn Vitch and three nieces.  He finally got some boys when he became a proud “Bumpa” to his two grandsons, Casey and Kyle Kloc.  To the very end, stories about the boys always made Steve smile. 

Calling Hours will be held at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Fairport, NY on Saturday, February 1 from 10 to 11 AM. A Service will follow. In lieu of flowers, the family would invite you to consider donations to the Alzheimer’s Association of Central New York or the Rescue Mission of Syracuse.