Captain Steven Allen Staples

June 5, 1964 – July 25, 2011

Flying, friends and family were the passions of Steve Staples’ life, and he would have found it appropriate that he was among the world’s largest temporary community of aviators when he made his final flight earlier this week.

Steve, 47, of Makanda, IL, died Monday, July 25 in an accident while flying his favorite Piper Cub J3C at the annual Experimental Aircraft Association convention in Oshkosh, WI.

Steve was born June 5, 1964 in Binghamton, NY into an aviation family. His father, Lynn Staples, was a private pilot and nationally-known designer and innovator of flight simulators, first with Link Aviation and later with the University of Illinois. From the moment Steve saw his first airplane there was never any doubt of his career path; he grew up living near small airports, earned his private pilot’s license in his late teens, entered Southern Illinois University’s aviation program in 1982 and was a proud member of the nationally-known Flying Salukis flight team.

Steve worked his way through school as a flight line serviceman and a flight instructor at Southern Illinois Airport and Williamson County Airport, earning a bachelors degree in aviation management from SIUC before achieving his lifelong goal of becoming a professional airline pilot by being hired by Pan American World Airways at the age of 24. He was affectionately known as “The Kid” at Pan Am because of his age.

Even though it was tragically brief, Steve’s career path was distinctive. He flew everything from night cargo to Hollywood celebrities while piloting turboprops, business jets and widebody airliners for Pan Am, ExpressOne Airlines, American Trans Air (ATA), NetJets and Capital Cargo International. At the time of his death he was a Boeing 747 First Officer for Kalitta Air Cargo. He had captained the Boeing 727, 737, 757, 767 and the Lockheed L1011, and had piloted classic World War II Boeing B-17 and Consolidated B-24 bombers on barnstorming tours across the country for the Collings Foundation. He loved flying classic airplanes and recently remarked that it was hard to decide what he enjoyed most: taking his tiny J3 Cub over the fields and forests of Southern Illinois or piloting the massive 747-400 around the globe.

Steve’s favorite group of aviators, however, was the pilots and flight engineers of ATA Airlines. Thousands of American servicemen and women remember Steve and his fellow “TZ Warriors,” who flew them across the world to Desert Storm, Operation Iraqi Freedom and other far-flung deployments then brought them home safely afterwards. Steve was a proud member of the Air Line Pilots Association and among his most rewarding achievements as a union volunteer was helping to negotiate the ATA crewmembers’ 2002 contract and later serve as chairman of the ATA Cockpit Crewmembers’ group. In a profession known for breeding abrasive personalities, thousands of fellow pilots, flight attendants, passengers, friends and even the executives he faced across the bargaining table will remember Steve for his warmth, gentleness and kind nature.

Steve Staples was preceded in death by his father, Lynn Staples and grandparents Harvey and Edna Staples, Elsie Howell Blair and her husband Ray Blair. Survivors include his wife Melissa Kristoff Staples of Makanda, a First Officer for United Airlines; his beloved daughter Annabelle; his mother Barbara; three sisters, Lisa Staples, Jennifer Horton and Susan Staples, an MD-80 Captain on medical leave from American Airlines; four nieces and nephews, Jameson Berry, Ashleigh Berry, Katelyn Hines, and Kylie Staples; and one grandnephew, Dylan Hines.

Visitation will be held Sunday, July 31 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at the Huffman-Harker Funeral Home, 210 West Oak Street in Carbondale, with services to follow at the funeral home at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, August 1. Interment will be at Evergreen Cemetery in Makanda. Friends and family are invited to join in a celebration of Steve’s life and achievements at the Giant City Lodge, 460 Giant City Lodge Road in Makanda following the graveside ceremony.

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