EWTN Remembers Deacon Bill
Eternal Word Television Network sadly announces the death of Deacon R. William Steltemeier, Jr., at age 83, following a lengthy illness.
Vitae
Honors and Accomplishments

 

Arrangements
Funeral Arrangements and Memorials

 

EWTN Family Newsletters
Read Deacon Bill's EWTN Family Newsletters
 

Curriculum Vitae
  Personal
June 6, 1929 Born in Nashville, Tennessee
August 22, 1953 Married Ramona (Schnupp) Steltemeier
April 26, 1975 Ordained to the Permanent Diaconate, Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee
July 2002 Relocated from Nashville, Tennessee to a home on the grounds of the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, Hanceville, Alabama
 
  Education
1948 Chaminade College Preparatory School, St. Louis, Missouri
1952 B.A. Degree, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee
1954 LL.B Degree, Vanderbilt University School of Law, Nashville, Tennessee
 
  Professional Experience
1954-56 U.S. Army, Verdun, France
1956-59 Burroughs Corporation
1960-1985 Steltemeier & Westbrook, Nashville, Tennessee Founding partner of a general law practice specializing in business reorganization, finance, commercial law, and all phases of residential and commercial real estate

1975 General Partner, Temple Hills Golf and Country Club, a golf course and real estate development venture in Nashville, Tennessee
1980 Founding President and Board member of Eternal Word Television Network, Inc.
1985 Resigned from Steltemeier & Westbrook to work full-time for EWTN
2000 Succeeded Mother Angelica as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EWTN
2009 Retired as Chief Executive Officer of EWTN
2009 Re-elected as Chairman of the Board of Governors of EWTN
 
  Religious Service
1967 Lay Director and one of the original organizers of the Catholic Cursillo Movement for the Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee
1970-74 Assisted in organizing the original Parish Councils for the Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee.
1974 Incorporator and Board member of Dismas House, Inc., of Nashville, Tennessee, a half-way house program for former prisoners
1975 Ordained to the Permanent Diaconate for the Diocese of Nashville, Tennessee by Bishop Joseph A. Durick
1976 Appointed Catholic Chaplain for the Tennessee State Prison for Men by Bishop James Niedergeses
1978 Met Mother M. Angelica of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, Irondale, Alabama and from that time served as friend, advisor, and attorney for the various apostolic works of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery and EWTN
1994 Invested as a Member of the American Association of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
1997 Invested as a member of the Equestrian Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher
2008 Incardinated as a Permanent Deacon of the Diocese of Birmingham in Alabama
 
  Civic and Community Service
1969 Board member and co-founder of the Junior Chamber of Commerce for the Tennessee Prison System
1971 Board member and officer of the 7-Step Foundation, Inc. and Chairman of Operation Comeback, Inc. non-profit organizations involving prison rehabilitation
1975 Appointed by the Governor of the State of Tennessee to the Commissioner's Review Board on prison reform
 
  Honors and Awards
2008 Honorary Doctor of Laws, Ave Maria University, Naples, Florida
2009 Awarded the Pontifical Medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for extraordinary service to the Church