Christopher Mark 'Chris' Stielow, 55, of Paradise, Kansas, died on Thursday, February 06, 2025, at his home in Paradise.
Chris was born on July 30, 1969, in Manhattan, Kansas, the son of Kenneth L. and Patricia (Comingdeer) Stielow. He grew up in Concordia, Kansas until he was 5 years old. In 1975, he and the family moved to the family farm south of Paradise, Kansas, he was very blessed to be able to live and grow up close to his grandparents. He attended Bickerdyke Elementary, Ruppenthal Middle School and graduated from Russell High School in the class of 1990. He was a longtime member of the Otterbein Methodist Church in Russell, Kansas. At church he enjoyed participating in Sunday School, youth group, Christmas programs, helping with Kids Klub and playing his guitar in worship services and he loved Jesus! He was very active with the Russell Rough Riders participating in basketball skills, bowling, track, shotput and Special Olympic events. He also played on the Solomon Valley Larks basketball team from Plainville for several years until his heart surgery. He was so proud of all the medals he won!
He enjoyed playing his guitar after taking guitar lessons from Charlotte Shaffer for many years. He liked dancing to music, listening to 50’s and 60’s music, the Beach Boys and his gospel music CD’s. He also loved Elvis’ music and was thrilled when he visited Graceland! He liked playing games on his Switch, Putt-Putt Golf, dressing up not just on Halloween but anytime. He wrote poetry, drawings, coloring, watching Bob Ross, Touched by an Angel on TV, Star Wars movies and sharing his love for life with family and friends. He had fun being the older brother and loved reminding Stephanie of that. He loved Christmas so every Wednesday he played Christmas music all day long, so we had Christmas every week. Loving the Kansas City Royals, he went to several games and one of the highlights of his life was getting to meet George Brett. He liked going to Kansas State football and basketball games and watching his nephews play sports. He truly enjoyed packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, going several times to the Denver distribution center. Chris was very creative, and he entered several of his drawings and things he made from boxes in the ARC Division at the Russell County Fair, winning several purple, blue and Reserved Champion ribbons. He also collected Snoopy and Peanut characters, light houses, weird pens and anything Elvis. Most of all he enjoyed life and spending time with his family, working on the family farm, driving his Gator, playing frisbee with Josey and taking care of his horses.
Surviving family includes his parents Ken and Pat Stielow of Paradise, Kansas; and sister Stephanie Dickerson and husband David of Paradise, Kansas; nephews, Grady Dickerson, Ethan Dickerson and Jayce Dickerson, aunts, uncles, cousins and lots of friends. He was preceded in death by his grandparents, 3 beloved aunts, an uncle and a cousin.
A celebration of Chris’ life will be held at 10:30 AM, Friday, February 14, 2024, at the Otterbein Global Methodist Church in Russell, Kansas. Burial will follow at the Russell City Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 9:00 AM to 8:00 PM, at the mortuary with family greeting guests from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM Thursday evening.
Memorial has been established with the Russell Rough Riders or Otterbein Methodist Church. Contributions and condolences may be sent to Pohlman-Varner-Peeler Mortuary of Russell, Kansas, who is in charge of the funeral service arrangements.