Steven J. Kelly

Steven John Kelly, born on December 29, 1958, was the third of four kids to Robert and Doris Kelly. He grew up in Massachusetts alongside his older brothers Bob and Rick, and his younger sister Linda. Steve was a machinist by trade, later developed a career in Facilities Management.
In 1990, Steve married Karen LaGree. Soon after they moved down to the Tampa, Florida area so Karen could practice medicine. Steve and Karen had 2 children, Megan and John.
Steve leaves behind an incredible legacy. He spent decades working at Community Health Centers, building and growing the healthcare business all over Pinellas County. The overwhelming sentiment around those who worked closely with him was that he was the strongest and smartest guy in every room.
Steve was known to defy the odds. In 2014, he underwent massive surgery, a double lung transplant. Despite a grim survival rate for that type of procedure, Steve took care of his new lungs and lived another 10 years. He made the most of his borrowed time, visiting his homeland Ireland, purchasing and renovating a new house, and telling a few thousand more jokes along the way.
Even when a cancer diagnosis hit Steve 3 years ago, he kept his head held high. Steve underwent double radiations, chemotherapy, trial medications, surgery, and more, all while shrugging off a deep amount of pain and suffering. "It is what it is" is Steve's least favorite saying because it's useless, but it also fits his situation well. He showed up to every appointment, made every nurse laugh, all while doing what he could to continue to beat the odds. He never gave up.
Above all else, Steve was a jokester. Everyone who knew him knew his favorite thing in the world was to throw up a crisp middle finger in every situation. His favorite singer was Weird Al and his favorite movie was Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Just know, if you don't laugh at his funeral, he might come and haunt you. He'd be finding a way to laugh at yours if the roles were reversed.
Steve was one in a billion. May we all aspire to be as loyal, strong, and funny as he was. (But really no one will ever be as funny as he was.) We are so happy Steve is pain free and at peace, and hope he knows how much of a massive impact he left on this earth.
We want to encourage people to celebrate Steve's full life, no matter how short it might have been. In lieu of flowers, we encourage you to either:
1. Donate to the Lung Transplant Foundation in his honor: https://lungtransplantfoundation.org/donate/
2. Venmo his daughter Megan to help with the funeral bar tab (he is Irish after all we have a lot of drinking to do) @meganakel on Venmo