December 23, 1933 - April 8, 2020
Written by Sarah Spieldenner ’77, Stephen's daughter
Stephen Chinlund ’51 passed away peacefully in his home on Wednesday, April 8, 2020 after a long illness. He recognized his loved ones until the very end, which was his dearest wish. At Friends, Steve played basketball and was on the receiving end of quite a few teenage crushes. While at Friends, his parents, Edwin F. (“Dee”) and Helen Brown Chinlund, helped to form Friends’ first teacher pension fund and also advocated for the admission of the first students of color at Friends Seminary. Steve became an Episcopal priest, yet Meeting for Worship instilled in him a formal way of expressing his belief that there is that of God in everyone. He used the model of Meeting to form therapeutic groups and programs for incarcerated people and for people who struggled with addiction. As a Friends parent, Steve was popular among both students and teachers, traveling to Powell House with his daughter’s ninth grade class. He was an active and engaged alumnus, serving as class secretary, Reunion chair and on the Alumni Council. He was engaged with life at Friends Seminary until late in his life, publicly acknowledging the power disparities amongst members of the Friends community. Love was what mattered most to Steve, and his Quaker education helped him to express it. Steve attended Friends with his older brother Tom ’49 (Dec. 2010) and his younger sister Edie ’53 (dec. 2019). He is said to have returned to Friends as a college student to meet the new girls in Edie’s class, and so met his first wife, Gay Sourian Cropper ’54. Other members of the Chinlund family to attend Friends include his niece Monica Chinlund ’78, his daughter Sarah Chinlund Spieldenner ’77 (a Friends Seminary English teacher from 1988-2013), his son Nicholas Chinlund ’79, and his grandson Luke Spieldenner ’08.