Stephen was born June 11, 1962 in Cambridge MA, to Dorothy Elizabeth Griffith and Thomas Walton Tucker. His family lived in Cambridge before coming to Medford at age three where Stephen spent the rest of his life. He graduated from Medford High School in 1972. Also, he graduated from Bishop College in Dallas, Texas in 1976 where he received a B.A. in Business Administration. He worked various management and analytical positions in the Massachusetts Probation Department. He also worked in Security and was eventually appointed as a Certified Constable in the City of Cambridge.
He met Kettly Pierre-Louis in 1986 after Kettly, with the help of a friend, got a new job at the same company where Stephen worked part time. She had recently moved from Connecticut to Massachusetts. Stephen worked in Security there and he had to check her ID every morning. Their first date was at Shiloh Baptist Church. Kettly didn’t mind. She at that time did not have a church home. They eventually married at Shiloh Baptist Church and had the reception at Jenks Center in Winchester. Kettly feels Stephen is responsible for the Christian she has become today. They raised a son, Stephen, Jr., the only child of this union.
Stephen, Jr. remembers that his father “was a homebody, a sweet and smart guy who taught him how to ride a bike, played video games with him and cleared a path for him to move through life. He was a Christian who had the Blood of Jesus on him.” He loved children. When the house was often filled with kids and Kettly needed to do an errand, he was always willing to babysit the children. Marsha, Kettly’s niece, felt he was a protector. She always felt safe with him. He helped her build self-confidence, making her feel better than she thought about herself, particularly when she expressed fear of an uninvited raccoon in the house.
Before his mother, Dorothy Elizabeth Tucker, passed last January, she would go straight from church to visit Stephen and the family who lived around the corner. She would go through the whole service with Stephen, scripture, sermon and songs included, and the conversation would often move into a lively political conversation before dinner.
Matthew, Stephen’s twin brother, wants you to know that his brother loved sports. “He loved football the most. He was a running back and safety on teams from Pop Warner, Hobbs Jr. High and Medford High School, all in Medford, MA. He liked football so much that in his earlier years, he liked a running back that played for the Cleveland Browns named Jim Brown and I liked a running back that played for the Philadelphia Eagles named Tim Brown. When the teams played against each other, we didn’t pay much attention to the score. We wanted to see who had the better game between the two running backs, and who had the most rushing yards during the game. Stephen learned a lot about sports on the playground of Dugger Park. Most of all, he loved Shiloh Baptist Church, the West Medford Community Center and the area of West Medford known to us as ‘The Ville’. I knew this man for more than sixty six years. He will always and forever be a part of my life.”
Stephen leaves to mourn his wife Kettly, his son, Stephen Jr., his twin brother Matthew and his wife Anita, cousins on both his mother and father’s side in Philadelphia, Texas, Massachusetts, Barbados, and England. He leaves also many sisters and brothers-in-laws, nieces and nephews and a whole host of relatives on Kettly’s side from different parts of the United States and Haiti. Stephen’s sweet, sweet quiet soul will be sorely missed.
His Funeral Service will be celebrated in the West Medford Baptist Church on Friday evening, December 7, 2018, at 6 PM. Relatives and friends are most welcome to attend. Visitation will be held in the church, prior to the service, from 5 to 6 PM. Interment will be held in the Blue Hills Cemetery in Braintree. Arrangements have been entrusted to the Beals-Geake-Magliozzi Funeral Home of Medford. For additional information, please visit, www.magliozzifuneralhome.com.