[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 10769-10770]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  JOHN STEKETEE, PIONEER IN YOUTH LAW

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. GEORGE MILLER

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Wednesday, May 7, 2003

  Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
regretfully announce the passing of a great jurist whose pioneering 
efforts in the field of juvenile law have changed much of the way we 
think about this complex and often controversial area of jurisprudence.
  John Steketee was a third generation lawyer who spent over 30 years 
on the bench, mostly as presiding/chief judge of the Kent County 
Michigan Probate Court, Juvenile Division. I came to know Judge 
Steketee when he was the leader of the National Council of Juvenile and 
Family Court Judges and I was doing the research that would culminate 
in enactment of the P.L. 96-272, the national foster care and adoption 
reform law of 1980. Judge Steketee was one of the earliest jurists to 
focus on the importance of permanency planning for children who had 
entered into, and often became trapped within, the bureaucratic maze of 
the foster care system.
  I frankly don't remember if I found him or he found me, but however 
it occurred, he played a hugely important role in shaping that 
legislation. Because of Judge Steketee's involvement, we were able to 
craft legislation that included case planning, periodic reviews of 
placement, and requirements for appropriateness of placements. He 
genuinely believed that the system had to be accountable to the child. 
The record of his achievements on the bench in Michigan, and his 
friendship with then-President Gerald Ford, helped many of those who 
might otherwise have been indifferent to recognize the workability and 
importance of the reforms we were proposing.
  The first Children in Placement study was conducted in his court in 
1971, which enabled him to discover lost children in the system and 
make sure that plans were being made for them. Through his association 
with them he was instrumental in successfully encouraging judges across 
the country to see permanency as an important issue for children and 
families, and that it was a duty for judges to hold all accountable for 
permanency to be achieved for all children. Judge Steketee was the 
first chair of the National Council's Permanency Planning Committee, 
and was the President of the Council 1984-1985. After retirement he 
continued to remain a strong advocate for permanency for the nation's 
children, and advocated for therapeutic juvenile and family drug 
courts.
  I would like to extend my condolences and those of the House to his 
widow, Maribeth, his daughters Betsy Fenner and Martha Steketee, his 
three step-daughters, Erin Checchi, Leigh Baker, and Laurie Baker, and 
his seven grandchildren.
  This is a man who made a great contribution to our nation and 
especially to its children and families, and I know the House joins me 
in paying respects to his memory. I would also like to include an 
article from the Grand Rapids Press on Judge Steketee.

               [From the Grand Rapids Press, May 3, 2003]

         Judge John Steketee, a Force for Children, Dies at 76

                           (By Doug Guthrie)

       A voice for children in need was stilled Friday with the 
     death of retired Kent County Probate Judge John Steketee.
       Steketee, 76, died from heart failure at Spectrum Health 
     Blodgett. He battled cancer since before his retirement in 
     2000, following 33 years on the bench.
       ``This is one of those people who may have been better 
     known in the nation than you thought you knew him at home,'' 
     said David Mitchell, executive director of the National 
     Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges.
       With enthusiasm for openness and change, Steketee was a 
     pioneer in efforts to move foster children more quickly into 
     permanent homes. His reshaping of the juvenile welfare system 
     in Kent County brought national attention.
       Mitchell said word of Steketee's death triggered a stream 
     of e-mails at his University of Nevada office in Reno.
       ``Without his example, leadership and vision, we would not 
     have moved the judicial system to the rules and permanence 
     for children that we have achieved,'' wrote Judge Richard 
     Fitzgerald of Louisville, Ky.'' . . . His mentorship of all 
     of us has helped us in building a just system.''
       Said Mitchell, who served 18 years as a judge in Baltimore: 
     ``He was a great man and mentor to so many of us. He taught 
     men and women throughout this nation how to be judges and 
     child advocates. He was loved.''
       His closest friends and family were at a loss Friday to 
     explain what in Steketee's life gave him the strength to walk 
     alone so many years ago against the current of conventional 
     bureaucratic wisdom.
       ``I'm not sure what it was,'' said his son, John Steketee. 
     ``He loved his work and had a desire to help.''
       Press columnist Arn Shackleford for 35 years has written 
     weekly stories about local children in need of adoptive 
     parents. She said it was Steketee who encouraged her to 
     start.
       ``The first quote I ever used from him was, `You can't 
     replace parental neglect with governmental neglect.' He was 
     just a truly good person who loved kids,'' Shackleford said.
       Raised on Grand Rapids' Southeast Side, Steketee became the 
     third generation of his family to practice law. After earning 
     degrees from the University of Michigan and Wayne State 
     University, he joined the family firm in 1956. He carried on 
     another family tradition, serving as the Netherlands' vice-
     consul for Michigan.
       Steketee was elected to Kent County's Probate Court in 
     1967, handling estates, juvenile issues, and mental health 
     commitments. The part of the job he liked best was obvious, 
     as the man with the snow-white beard became known as the 
     ``Santa Claus Judge.''
       His office in the Waalkes Juvenile Center on Cedar Street 
     NE became decorated over the years with hundreds of snapshots 
     taken

[[Page 10770]]

     at adoption ceremonies, where Steketee had everyone in every 
     adopted family swear under oath to love one another.
       Off the job, he loved to sail. He owned two sailboats in 
     his lifetime, the Shields and Twin Wing, berthed in Holland. 
     He never raced, only cruised and relaxed on the waves.
       Despite already being diagnosed with lung cancer, it was 
     state law that prohibited Steketee from seeking another six 
     years in office because of his age.
       Even undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments, 
     Steketee remained active in his retirement.
       Mitchell said he spoke with Steketee last week about plans 
     to attend the council's annual national convention in July in 
     San Antonio.
       Until recently, Steketee also served as a visiting judge, 
     filling in for others on the Kent County Circuit bench. He 
     often stopped by the Kent County Courthouse to lobby for a 
     new idea, visit his old staff or simply find a lunch partner.
       ``He was fighting the cancer and trying to live his life,'' 
     his wife, Maribeth, said Friday.
       Judge Patrick Hillary, who was elected to Steketee's seat, 
     said Friday was a busy day in court, but one with many pauses 
     to reflect. Hillary used to practice as domestic relations 
     attorney in front of Steketee, and when elected, inherited 
     his staff and caseload.
       ``People say, `You replaced Judge Steketee.' I'm always 
     real careful to say, `I succeeded Judge Steketee,''' Hillary 
     said. ``Nobody could replace him.''

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