Nathan Hale Steele

Nathan “Nate” Hale Steele died April 15. He was 88.

Born Sept. 26, 1926, in Ada, Oklahoma, Steele was one of 14 children born on a small farm. At age 17, he joined the Navy and was stationed aboard the USS Cornell in the South Pacific in WWII. After the war, Steele went to work at Standard Oil (now Chevron) and eventually went on to work at the Point Richmond Shipyard dismantling ships. In 1948, Steele began working at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as a materials handler until moving to Livermore and transferring to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 1956. He worked his way up to an LLNL long-haul truck driver and then to a transportation supervisor, until his retirement in 1986.

In 1947, Steele married his “sweetie," Vela Mae Abbott and they lived in Richmond, California  where they attended the Christian Missionary Alliance. Once in Livermore, Steele and his wife became Sunday school teachers and youth leaders at the Christian Missionary Alliance church on 5th and J. They spent time ministering to the inmates at Santa Rita Jail in Pleasanton and hosted missionaries from all over the world in their Livermore home. One of the missionaries they hosted was Dr. Ardel Vietti, who went on to be one of the Christian leprosy doctors kidnapped by the Viet-Cong in 1962, never to be seen again. This affected Steele and his family deeply.

Steele was predeceased by his wife of 64 years, Vela Mae Steele (2008); and his 2-year-old son, Roger Glenn Steele (1955). He is survived by his daughter, Deanna (Jerry) Haynie of Livermore; grandsons, Roger (Samia) Haynie of Mountain House and Rodney (Danielle) Haynie of Pleasanton; granddaughter, Jessica (Daniel) Rippee and best football friend, Thomas Donayre of Livermore.

Funeral services were recently held at Callahan’s Mortuary on East Avenue.