OLD LYME — Stephen Joseph Joncus AIA, USNR Lieutenant JG Retired, of Old Lyme, passed away at the age of 90 in the early hours of Easter Sunday (April 9) at Connecticut Hospice in Branford.
Steve was past president of the Connecticut branch of the American Institute of Architects and the Old Saybrook Rotary Club, and a former corporator of Laurence + Memorial hospital, where he spent some of his final days as a patient. He is survived by Sandra, his wife of 68 years, by two of his sisters, Barbara Sieczkowski and Susan Nichols, by his three children and their spouses – Stephen Jr. and Rose (Cleavenger) Joncus, Leslie and Nural Akchurin, and Andrew and Berta (Tucker) Joncus – and by grandchildren Peri, Larissa, Parker and his wife Brittany, Gustav, and Oliver.
Steve was born on October 14, 1932, in Newton, Massachusetts, to Joseph Joncus, the son of Lithuanian immigrants, and Margaret (Brobeil) Joncus. Originally a physics undergraduate at Cornell, Steve transferred to the College of Architecture at the end of his first year. He and Sandra, who met at Needham High School in the 1940s, were married on a college break on the day after Christmas 1954. His two years of active naval duty following graduation included listening to North Atlantic signals traffic from a secure location in lower Manhattan. In the late 1950s Steve and Sandra moved to Hartford, where they rented an apartment in Mark Twain’s former kitchen, and near the end of their two years there Steve produced a set of ‘as built’ drawings of the Mark Twain House. In 1960, with Steve employed by the Hartford firm of Jeter & Cook (now JCJ Architecture), the couple and their first two children moved to a farmhouse in rural Coventry, Connecticut.
In 1969, at the age of 37, Steve opened his own architectural practice on State Street in New London, and the following year moved his family to the Old Lyme house where he lived with Sandra until two weeks before his death. This began a commitment to New London and its surrounding area that lasted the rest of his life. Among his projects in the city of which Steve was proudest was the Starr Street Historic District, for which he was awarded the 1984 Public Places Award by The Connecticut Society of Architects. While his professional practice over the years included partnerships with Bill Hermann in Mystic and Mark Schneider in East Lyme, from the late 1980s Steve was a sole practitioner, working from an office he’d designed out of his home’s former garage.
Steve used his lively design sense to make clients’ existing spaces work better for them. He delighted in finding elegant solutions to the restrictions caused by zoning, by previous building footprint, or by access requirements. He was an early proponent of green technologies. Within the profession, he was a critic of the “style guys” – the marquee architects who dominated the glossy monthlies – but was no less opposed to those who would deny that architects are necessary to the conception and construction of buildings. He always promoted the relevance of architecture, to people’s lives and as a profession.
In retirement, Steve devoted his talents to civic, social, and religious projects. In Old Lyme, as part of the ‘Tuesday Morning Work Crew’, he designed expanded working spaces for the Old Lyme Historical Society, which included an archive-grade document storage room and a handicapped access hoist. One of his last and most satisfying projects was a church conversion to a shelter and offices for the New London Homeless Hospitality Center. Steve was for many years Treasurer of the South Lyme Union Chapel, where he and Sandra worshipped, and he devised a number of small improvements to the chapel building.
Steve’s interactions with others were characterised by a kindness, honesty, and dry wit that inspired love and loyalty among many people with whom he dealt and worked. An enthusiastic sailor, he loved living by the sea. A life-long Democrat, he was a true egalitarian who worked actively for a world where each person’s potential can be realized. A keen reader of historical works, he was fascinated by the Civil War in particular, and by the person and presidency of Abraham Lincoln, whom he admired enormously.
A memorial service for Steve will be held at the South Lyme chapel, located at 308 Mile Creek Road, at 11 am on Saturday, April 15. Those wishing to give something in his memory are invited to donate to causes that he supported: 350.org, Doctors Without Borders, and The New London Homeless Hospitality Center.
What an amazing person. Truly will be missed by so many he leaves behind. Thank you for such an eloquent write up of Steve’s many accomplishments.
The Old Lyme Historical Society will be forever indebted to Steve for his volunteer contributions as the architect for the many renovations that have enhanced the headquarters at 55 Lyme Street. We will miss Steve’s dedication and good humor. We send our deepest sympathies to Sandra and the whole family.