Stephen James Pettit

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Stephen James Pettit

October 6, 1954 – January 11, 2022

Known to all as Steve, Stephen James was a devoted husband, father and friend who entered eternity on January 11 after a six-week battle with heart failure.

Steve was born to Casper G. (Gene) and Mary Elizabeth (Betty) Clear Pettit on October 6, 1954 in Hamilton, Ohio.  Although he lived in various cities on three continents, throughout his life, when asked where he was “from”, his response was always Columbus, Ohio. In his later years, when asked about “home,” he would proudly respond Texas.

Steve graduated from Bishop Hartley High School in Columbus in 1972, from the University of Notre Dame in 1976, and from Duke Law School in 1979.  But his curiosity was boundless, his intellectual power extraordinary, and his search for knowledge unending.  An avid chess player from childhood, his facile mind allowed him to take the best from multiple disciplines, synthesize it, and discover creative solutions to seemingly insoluble problems.

That intellect and drive took Steve around the world during an accomplished professional career that spanned more than 40 years and five of the six inhabited continents.  He began in private practice as an associate in a Wall Street law firm, did a tour as a trial and appellate litigator in rural Alabama, spent decades counseling a large, multinational energy company, and finally ended his career as CEO of a real estate investment fund. Throughout, he was a true leader who demanded the best from those around him but never that they do anything that was contrary to their conscience or that he was unwilling to do himself. Steve’s colleagues remember him as someone with strong views but a fair mind as well as the ability to recognize and appreciate talent—regardless of the gender, color, or creed of the individual who possessed it.

When he was not working, Steve loved to expand his mind through yet further travel, reading, and spirited debate with anyone who should cross his path. He loved being outdoors, whether it be climbing on ruins of ancient civilizations, riding horses through the American southwest, or hunting various four-legged mammals. But most of all, he loved the time he spent with his family and his friends to whom he was loyal and devoted until his last breath.

Steve is survived by wife Ann, his son Stephen Andrew (Drew) and daughter-in-law DJ, his daughter Lanora (Lori), and his two sisters and their families. But he will be missed by all those whose lives he touched with his big personality and his even bigger heart. In lieu of flowers, his family asks that you send donations to either the American Heart Association or American Diabetes Association, whose missions are to fight the diseases that took a great man from us entirely too soon.