Stephen Junker, 58, died September 4 from injuries suffered in a cruise ship pool accident while celebrating his son’s wedding.
The Minnesota pastor was found face down and unresponsive in a swimming pool aboard the Sun Princess off Italy’s coast on August 11, according to a family GoFundMe page. The Italian Coast Guard transported him to a Naples hospital, where emergency spinal surgery on August 17 failed to reverse catastrophic damage.
“At 6:33 PM today, Steve went to be with Jesus. He was surrounded by his wife, children, parents, and friends,” his daughter Elizabeth wrote on the GoFundMe page. “Further diagnostic testing had revealed injuries that were not treatable.”
The procedure was intended to relieve pressure on his spinal cord and stabilize his damaged neck, but Junker was left quadriplegic and dependent on a ventilator. His family arranged medical transport back to the United States, and he arrived at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., on August 23.
“We’re glad we were able to give him the opportunity to receive world-class care and reassured that everything that could possibly be done to help him was done,” Elizabeth added on the fundraising page.
Jeanine Junker, his wife of nearly 32 years, mourned him publicly through their church’s Facebook page. The couple met while attending Southwest State University in Marshall, Minn., and married on December 19, 1992. They raised five children together.
“Mourning the loss of a Pastor for our church family is very difficult to understand,” she wrote in the statement. “Pastor Steve was a wonderful person, loved by many, and had a great impact on many people through his faith.”
She drew on a family member’s words to describe her husband’s passing. “Nathaniel Junker has said it best when he sang his worship songs as Pastor Steve was welcomed into Heaven, ‘he closed his eyes to this life and opened his eyes to Jesus’ what more does anyone want!” she added.
Before entering ministry, Junker earned a pharmacy degree from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. He later completed a Master of Divinity at Lutheran Brethren Seminary in Fergus Falls, Minn., and was ordained. For approximately a decade, he led Chippewa Lutheran Church in Brandon, Minn.
His online obituary highlighted qualities that defined his pastoral work: animated sermons, enthusiasm for conversation on nearly any topic, and willingness to assist anyone in need.
Junker is survived by Jeanine, their five children and their spouses, a grandson, his parents, and his sister.
