In Memory of Steve LaFond...

Steve & Martha LaFond

Chaplain Put Others First - DEEPA BHARATH - THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER - Wednesday, December 20, 2006

GARDEN GROVE – On Saturday, Steve LaFond drove with his wife to a friend's house to drop off a banana nut cake.

The Garden Grove police chaplain was still recovering from complications after a surgery for tongue cancer. But it was, after all, a Christmas present.

And the holidays were LaFond's favorite time of the year, said his friend Ann Nguyen, recipient of the banana nut cake.

LaFond, 63, died early Sunday morning.

He was best known in Garden Grove as the man who was instrumental in starting the most diverse police chaplain program in the country. The team includes a Catholic priest, Buddhist monk and a Muslim.

LaFond himself was Mormon and was a spiritual man, said his wife, Martha LaFond.

"But he loved everyone, whatever their race or religion," she said.

LaFond was born in Olympia, Wash., but his family moved to Midway City when he was 3, his wife said. He graduated from Westminster High School in 1963.

For 33 years after that, LaFond had one job. He was a butcher at Stater Bros. in Garden Grove.

"He loved people," his wife recalled. "As he cut the meat behind the counter, he'd talk to people or give them recipes."

He enjoyed cooking steaks and ribs and relished his wife's pot roast.

LaFond became a part-time employee at the police station in October 1995, said Garden Grove police Lt. Mike Handfield. He quickly became an integral part of the department's crime prevention and trauma intervention programs, Handfield said.

In May, LaFond immediately responded to a triple homicide in Garden Grove where a man, woman and their 7-year-old son were murdered. LaFond was undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatment at the time, but that didn't stop him from organizing safety-education classes for traumatized parents and children at the murdered boy's school, Handfield said.

"The thing is, Steve never stopped working," he said. "He just kept on going."

 

Chaplain Steve LaFond & Founding Member Sgt. Pat Bailey

The Garden Grove Police Department Interfaith Volunteer Chaplains Program.

The program today is directed by founding member Sgt. Pat Bailey, it has representatives serving as police chaplains from the Islamic, Jewish, Buddhist, Mormon, Catholic, Baptist and other Christian faiths. Two chaplains speak Arabic, one speaks Vietnamese and three others speak Spanish.

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Garden Grove Police Chaplain Dies - Steve LaFond died Sunday morning after a long battle with cancer By DEEPA BHARATH - The Orange County Register

GARDEN GROVE - A funeral service has been scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday (12/22/2006) for Garden Grove police Chaplain Steve LaFond, who died on Sunday of cancer. He was 63.

LaFond, who became a volunteer chaplain when the program started in 2000, was the Mormon on the team of chaplains that includes a Buddhist monk, rabbi and a Muslim among others.

LaFond, also one of the directors of the Garden Grove Interfaith Council, was instrumental in making the chaplain program diverse, said longtime friend Barbara George.

Those who met LaFond even briefly knew him to be a compassionate man, said friend and Interfaith Council member Ann Nguyen. LaFond stopped by Nguyen's house on Saturday evening -- hours before his death -- to drop off a banana nut cake as a holiday, she said.

"That just tells you the kind of person Steve was," she said.

LaFond is survived by his wife Martha; daughter Laura; sons Bret, Blake and Wayne; 10 grandchildren and a great grandchild.

Awards: Cypress College Foundation's "Americana Citizen" Award (1998); Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition - Rep. Loretta Sanchez (2001); California State Assembly Cerificate of Recognition - Rep. Luis Correa (2001); Garden Grove Chamber of Commerce's Man of the Year (2002).