Las Vegas pastor killed in canoe accident remembered as selfless
Congregants lined the pews Sunday morning at First Christian Church, hugging and welcoming one another. Organ music filled the worship space, and bouquets of sunflowers were on both sides of the altar.
“Sunflowers were our wedding flower,” Sheri Willis said after the service. “I look up during prayer and there they are.”
Her husband, Steve Willis, a senior pastor at the church, 101 S. Rancho Drive, died July 30.
Sheri and Steve, both 50, were celebrating their first wedding anniversary when their tour canoe capsized in a river in Alaska. The two decided to take a trip to Alaska while they were on their belated honeymoon cruise in November.
“He loved seafood,” Sheri said. “It was all about the seafood for him.”
The couple, who met online, left Las Vegas on July 24 so that Steve could visit San Francisco for the first time. Then they embarked on a cruise to Alaska that made stops in Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway.
“He booked every excursion. I didn’t have any say in them,” Sheri said. “It was just beautiful, even the weather. They said that this was the best summer they’ve had in Alaska. It was sunny. It was the absolute best trip.”
Sheri, an elementary school teacher, said her husband could make her laugh even when they were frustrated with each other.
He was the most selfless person she had ever met, she said, even in his last moments.
“He was yelling at me, ‘Sheri get to the shore, grab that rock,’ ” Sheri said. “He was more concerned about me. We have a grandson due in 40 days, and he was thinking I needed to get to shore so that one of us could be a grandparent.”
Their boat, carrying 10 people, capsized about 10:30 a.m. Everyone on board wore life jackets, and nine survived.
“If you ever watch a survival movie about a plane crashing or anything, that’s what it was like,” Sheri said. “We were all wet and in soaked feet had to climb through the thick forest of Alaskan wilderness to the helicopter.”
Steve is survived by his two children and Sheri’s three children.
At Sunday’s service, Sheri wore Steve’s black wedding ring on a silver chain around her neck.
“I always knew he loved me because he was always putting me first, and I even saw that in the end,” she said.
Steve Willis was more than a pastor at First Christian Church, one congregant said after Sunday’s service. He was a friend, a jokester and a lawn-game athlete.
“He was church champion at cornhole,” Erin Jamison said, referring to the bean-bag-tossing game. “We were just talking the weekend before we found out, that someone had to take him down at cornhole. He was just unbeatable.”
Jamison also remembered Willis for his wit — they shared “a million” inside jokes — and his ability to connect to everyone.
“He was the type of pastor who before every service would go around and shake everyone’s hand to connect with them and see how they were doing.”
Gary Slavik, 60, said he and Willis became fast friends when the pastor moved to Las Vegas from Arkansas in 2014.
“Steve was the kind of guy that no matter if you knew him for two minutes or for five years, it was the same: He was your friend, immediately.”
The pair went fishing together in Long Beach, California, and competed to see who could eat the most lamb chops at one of their favorite restaurants, Texas de Brazil. When Slavik’s wife had a heart transplant in November 2016, Willis dropped everything to be with them at the hospital for a week.
“He was the kind of guy who was always there,” Slavik said. “No matter what time of day or night, or any other reason, if you say, ‘Steve, I need you,’ he would be there.
“He was that way with the whole congregation. He just gave so much of himself. He was selfless. We’ve lost a best friend.”
A previous version incorrectly reported when Steve and Sheri Willis departed Las Vegas for their anniversary. The couple left for San Francisco on July 24.
Contact Kimber Laux at klaux@reviewjournal.com. Follow @lauxkimber on Twitter.
Willis, church celebrate Ash Wednesday
In February, Willis and First Christian members celebrated Ash Wednesday by marking the foreheads of visitors to Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas.
“The majority of the time Jesus interacted with followers and potential followers, he was out among the people where they were,” Willis told the Review-Journal.
Willis discusses church, pastoral duties
In 2016, Willis talked to the Review-Journal’s Rachel Aston about his job as senior pastor at First Christian Church and the church’s role in Las Vegas.
He said he uses humor in his messages on the church’s outdoor sign to get attention and attract new congregants.
