Stephanie Leicht

Stephanie Leicht, 79, of Charlotte, NC shuffled off this mortal coil on March 25, 2022 due to natural causes. She was an adventurous, unorthodox, independent, and fierce soul, and passed away, as she had also lived, in her usual stubborn and unapologetic fashion.

Stephanie was born in St. Louis Missouri to Alfred and Violet Leicht on October 13, 1942 and while an only child, “Stevie” grew up surrounded by many cousins, aunts and uncles - her mother being one of 10 children. She blazed her own trail from the get-go excelling in academics, choir and ballet and after graduation from Cleveland High School, there was no stopping the petite 5’2” ball of energy from her from being the first in her family to head to college.

In 1961, Stephanie attended University of Missouri Rolla where, she joined the Society of Women Engineers, served as president of the first women’s dormitory at Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy, and even found time to cheer in addition to her studies. She graduated in 1965 from University of Missouri at Rolla with a BS in Applied Mathematics.

After graduation she entered the professional workforce in software development programming on punch cards, and working with computers that filled large rooms (sometimes with her tiny kid in tow). Later she applied her computer science and technical analysis knowledge in the satellite engineering and banking industries.

Being one of the original “Women in technology”, she firmly believed in equality and actively supported the Equal Rights Amendment to help pave the way for the next generation girls behind her to be whatever they wanted to be. She was very comfortable in her own skin and was never one looking to win popularity contests, her tight moral compass drove her forward.

Stephanie was also passionate about the arts, reading and cooking. She taught herself to cook various foreign cuisines which started out of necessity and remarked that her mother couldn’t cook and could burn water.  She was a talented seamstress sewing dresses for her daughter when she was a toddler and designed patterns and made several prom and homecoming dresses. If you could dream it, she could make it happen. Stephanie also learned how to work with stained glass, and later settled into pottery and loved to sculpt. When not working, or crafting, she enjoyed traveling in the US and abroad. She made the most of the DC art museums and cultural scenes and frequented ballets and Broadway shows. For anyone who spent any time with her, knew there wasn’t a classic show tune that she didn’t know the words to, and that "Life is too short to eat sh*tty food", and to "turn left... no, my other left".

Her friends enjoyed her quick wit and intelligent conversation and she was quick to help anyone, or any animal, in need. No doubt, Stephanie has been greeted eagerly by several mutts, a Boxer, 2 Basset Hounds, 2 ducks and many cats. She was a lifelong animal rescue supporter and known to stop along roads to pick up lost cats and dogs to get them to safety - and for the ones not claimed, on more than one occasion, they got to join the family.

Stephanie is survived her two favorite children, Robin Steward and Mark Kettelkamp (side note: there are only two of us) from Virginia, two grandchildren Haley and Hunter Steward from Virginia, and her beloved cat Oliver who is currently at the Humane Society of York County. Both Robin and Mark wanted dear Oliver as they inherited “animal lover” gene from their mom; Robin was prevented by her defective asthmatic lungs and Mark was already at max cat capacity and was unable to take on “just one more”.

Robin would like to thank Willie Kunkel for his extreme kindness and companionship and unwavering support for Stephanie; Christine Goldsmith and Anna Miller of Merrill Lynch who consistently continue to go above and beyond; and Providence Care Hospice (shout out to Kerrie!) who provided expert care and showed extreme compassion. It took a village to manage and care for Stephanie especially in her later days, who was still as sharp and as much of herself as she was in her youth.

Stephanie specified a few things at her passing, and a service wasn’t one of them. However, she did ask that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Humane Society of York County (HSYC) at https://humanesocietyofyorkcounty.org/donate/donate.html . Oliver and his shelter friends would be thankful and mom would be happy