Sterling Stenerson

Sterling K Stenerson passed away peacefully at the Hamlet Retirement Community in Chagrin Falls Ohio on April 2nd.  He was 90 years old.  

Sterling was born on January 18,1933 in the small town of Edinburg, North Dakota where he and his brother Lon worked on his father’s potato farm. Potato farming was tough in the 1930s and ‘40s and the family house was without plumbing until Sterling left for college at 18. Sterling and Lon slept on the floor of the living room, their sisters sharing a bedroom.

The challenges of life on the farm forged a toughness in Sterling as well as an enduring love of connection to others who struggled in their own ways.  He not only worked in the fields but at his father’s farm equipment store, where he enjoyed gabbing and selling to area farmers, hearing their stories, and learning from them. This gift for listening, learning, connection, and caring for others became one of Sterling’s greatest strengths throughout his life.

Friendships were central to Sterling. In his final days, he could name every one of his childhood friends in photos from the 1930s and tell each boys’ life story, as far as he knew it.  

Developing a lifelong love of sports at an early age, Sterling played basketball in North Dakota’s high school state championship, the team placing second in what was the school’s first trip to the finals.  After graduating high school, he attended NDSU in Fargo where he met his future wife Kathleen (Kay) Donovan.  

After college, Sterling served in Korea where he also played softball and learned to play ping-pong from the locals. Sterling and Kay were married in Chicago and Sterling began his career working at Chicago Paper Company, eventually moving on to work with two subsidiaries of the Mead Corporation in South Bend and Cleveland.

Sterling loved his life as a traveling paper salesman, calling on commercial printers throughout the Midwest. Enjoying the company of other hard-driving individuals, he lived and breathed his work and counted many customers among his closest and longest-lasting friends.  He relished competition and sold to accounts many of his competitors could not land.

After Chicago, the family moved to South Bend, IN and then to Shaker Heights, OH. Wanting to be his own boss, Sterling started the Shaker Paper Company in the mid-80s. Even after the printing industry had declined, he only reluctantly closed the company in his mid-80s, still reveling in the business connections he cherished as friends, “getting out there” and “staying in the game.” In addition to the paper business, Sterling enjoyed investing in real estate in Arizona, Montana, North Dakota, and the greater Cleveland area.

For Sterling, the art of the deal was at least as much about connecting and competition as it was about making money, sealed more often with a handshake than a contract.  Though he loved doing business, he was most in his element sitting with friends over coffee and meals at restaurants all over Cleveland, most notably Marie’s on St. Claire and Tommy’s on Coventry. He often encouraged his friends to follow the path that he felt worked best for him: to be grateful, keep trying, and “stay loose.”

He lived his life independently and on his own terms until his final few months in hospice care. Even then, relationships were paramount. More than one hospice worker commented that they’d never seen a male patient with as many visitors as Sterling had. Significantly, this devotion never waned. Friends continued to visit Sterling long past the time where he could engage in the conversations he cherished; he meant as much to his friends as they meant to him, which was immeasurable.

Sterling was preceded in death by his siblings Lyla, Lon, Sandy, and Sherry, his father Stanley and mother Mandy as well as his son Marty. Sterling is survived by his sons John, Tom, and Andy as well as grandchildren Ryan, Ruby, Zane, and Echo and companion Betsy Jenkins of Madison, WI.

Sterling has many beloved nephews and nieces, cousins and extended family across the country and a wide circle of close friends, many whom he came to know in his years as a member of the AA program, a foundation of his adult life.

No formal service is being planned by the family at this time, but a memorial gathering may be planned by Sterling’s friends. Any updates can be posted here on the Tribute Wall, where everyone who knew Sterling is encouraged to share their memories and thoughts.

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