If you had the opportunity to know Steve Lutes, you never forgot him.

He was magnetic—larger than life, full of passion, and carried a contagious enthusiasm that inspired everyone around him.

Whether at work at home, on the field, or around a kitchen table, Steve was always looking for a way to make something - or someone - even just 1% better.

To Steve, challenges were never obstacles; they were opportunities to become stronger.

That mindset carried him through the greatest challenge of his life.

In October 2020, Steve was diagnosed with chondrosarcoma, an extraordinarily rare bone cancer with no known cure and few effective treatments. The future was uncertain, but Steve faced it the same way he faced everything else: with courage, determination, and hope.

Over the next five years, Steve endured surgeries, rehabilitation, experimental treatments, clinical trials, countless scans, hospital stays, and unimaginable physical challenges.

After losing part of his femur to surgery, he relearned to walk alongside his young son, Shepherd, who was taking his very first steps. Even in one of the hardest seasons imaginable, Steve chose hope over despair.

When a first-in-human clinical trial at MD Anderson offered new possibilities, Steve, Annie, and Shepherd packed up their lives with only a few weeks' notice and moved to Houston for nearly a year. Steve became one of the first patients to receive a treatment designed specifically for chondrosarcoma. The side effects were brutal. Pain, uncertainty, setbacks, hospitalizations, and endless appointments became their daily reality.

Yet through it all, Steve never stopped encouraging others.

Shortly after they moved back home to Colorado in 2025, Steve wrote, “Nobody is born a warrior....You choose to be one when you stand up after getting knocked down.”

He also wrote:

“Appreciate today. Yesterday is over and tomorrow is always uncertain... Never give up when life gets too hard. Every day is a new opportunity to begin again.”

That was Steve. Always teaching. Always encouraging.

But Steve's greatest legacy reaches far beyond the incredible courage with which he faced cancer.

His greatest legacy is the husband he was to Annie, the father he was to Shepherd, the son he was to Kay and Charles, the brother he was to Renee, and the loyal friend, mentor, and teammate he was to so many others. Every difficult treatment he pursued and every obstacle he endured was driven by one simple desire: more time with the people he loved.

Cancer could not take the qualities that made Steve extraordinary. It never diminished his generosity, his courage, his optimism, his curiosity, or his unwavering faith.

His legacy lives on in Annie and Shepherd, in every person he mentored, every teammate he inspired, every friend he encouraged, and every life he changed.

Today, we have an opportunity to honor that legacy by surrounding Annie and Shepherd with the same love, generosity, and support that Steve so freely gave to others.

Thank you for walking alongside this incredible family. Your prayers, encouragement, and generosity will help carry them forward, just as Steve spent his life carrying so many others.