Stephen Michael Getz Jr.

Stephen "Steve" Michael Getz, 41, died unexpectedly on Tuesday, May 6, 2025, at Memorial hospital, after a house fire.
Steve was born on December 1, 1983, in Tokyo, Japan, where he spent his younger years before moving to the US in elementary school. He attended Penn High School, followed by Indiana University in Bloomington, where he studied Biochemistry and Japanese. It was at IU that his relationship with his future wife, Jenni, began, and they quickly became inseparable. After college, Jenni and Steve got married and moved to Phoenix, AZ, where Steve studied at the Phoenix Institute of Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture. They returned to Indiana in 2013, and Steve went on to pursue a variety of professional ventures. He started his own acupuncture clinic, gave martial arts lessons, and taught World Languages at Discovery Middle School, before taking over his mother's Kumon franchise (Kumon Center of Granger). He had also recently started a massage therapy business, the Mind Body and Spirit Center of Granger. In 2014, Jenni and Steve started their family with the birth of their son, Renzo. They went on to have two more children, Elena (2017) and Kaien "Kai"(2020).
Steve will forever be remembered as a kind, friendly, creative, open-minded, and uniquely nonjudgmental person, who made friends and connections wherever he went. He enjoyed big ideas, talking to people from all walks of life, and having new and interesting experiences. He made the people around him feel safe and accepted, and was a champion for removing stigma, barriers, and biases of all kinds. Steve saw the world around him in vivid detail, and explored it with great depth; he enjoyed nothing more than sharing this perspective with the people in his life.
Steve was a passionate teacher, and spoke with great fondness of his students at Kumon and Discovery. Helping people learn, grow, and expand their horizons was one of Steve's greatest passions, and one of his greatest gifts. In addition to being a natural teacher, Steve was a deep thinker, an accomplished martial artist, a talented visual artist, and a skilled massage therapist. Above all, Steve was a loving husband, father, son, uncle, and friend. He cherished his family and friends, and was so very proud of the life he built with his wife and children.
Steve is preceded in death by his father, Stephen Michael Getz Sr, and his Step-Father, Charles La Velle. He is survived by his mother, Yoko La Velle, wife, Jennifer Getz, and three children, Renzo (10), Elena (7), and Kai (5).
A Celebration of Life gathering will be held on Sunday, May 18, 2025, from 1:00-3:00pm at Palmer Funeral Home--Welsheimer Chapel, 17033 Cleveland Road, South Bend, IN.
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