Stephen Schoderbek

Stephen Ernest Schoderbek '53

Colonel Stephen E. Schoderbek, USAF (Retired) died in Parker, CO on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. He was 95 years old.

Born in Duquesne, PA, Steve joined the U.S. Navy after graduation from high school in 1947. He served at St. Alban's Naval Hospital and aboard Battleship Missouri as a Hospital Corpsman prior to entry to the Naval Academy Preparatory School. Steve entered the Naval Academy in June 1949. He was a Varsity "N" football quarterback and was the first quarterback in Navy history to run for 100 yards in a game, against the University of Pennsylvania in 1952.

Upon graduation in 1953, he transferred to the U.S. Air Force under a program where the Air Force accepted a limited number of officers from the two major service academies, before the Air Force Academy graduated its first class in 1959. Steve served 24 years in the Air Force, initially with the Air Training Command before attending The University of Wyoming and receiving an MS in Industrial Management in 1958. After a tour as Production Officer in the Air Material Command, he was selected in 1961 to teach Economics at the United States Air Force Academy. Steve served as Assistant and Associate Professor before becoming Chairman for Economics and Management. In his last Air Force assignment, Steve was appointed in 1974 as Chief of Economic Studies at the Air War College in Montgomery, AL, retiring in 1977. His military performance earned two Air Force Commendation Medals and two Legion of Merit Medals.

After retirement, Steve moved his family to Albuquerque, NM, where he spent the next eight years as a Senior Economist for The BDM Corporation. At BDM he performed numerous analytical studies on proposed Directed Energy Space Weapons Systems. He wrote, lectured extensively on defense economics, and delivered papers at numerous military schools and colleges on the cost and effectiveness of potential laser weapons systems. In retirement he developed mathematical systems for predicting the success of college football programs, and later for predicting the outcomes of NFL games.

Steve loved traveling, music, and art. His boisterous, outgoing personality, combined with his many passions, made him a man who was beloved by all who knew him. Above all, Steve cherished spending time with his family and friends. He will be greatly missed.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 54 years, Leslie Margaret Wardrop, a former Air Force nurse, and also by their son, Brian. Steve is survived by daughter, Joanna and husband, Maris Biela of Littleton, CO; son, David and wife, Dianna (Kottlowski), of Parker, CO; grandson, Donald and his wife, Madelyn (Cochran), great-grandchildren, Swen and Caper;and granddaughter, Florence and her husband, Aaron Lindsay.

Funeral services will be conducted at Ave Maria Catholic Church in Parker, CO, on Friday, November 15, 2024, followed by a Memorial Service at FRENCH-Lomas in Albuquerque, NM on Friday, December 13, 2024. Steve's remains will be interred with Leslie's and Brian's at Santa Fe National Cemetery, NM.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to your favorite charity in Steve's memory.