R. Steven Taylor
O '80, of Beijing, Other died on Monday, February 23, 2009

Steve Taylor peacefully passed away in Bangkok. Steve suffered a cardiac arrest ten days earlier while on holiday in Thailand and had been hospitalized.

He was a five-time Peace Corps Country Director, former Civil Service, and current Foreign Service member serving in Beijing, Steve was a great guy, a true inspiration to a many of us, and will be sorely missed. Below is a short bio that was passed along to us. Please keep Steve and his family in your thoughts and prayers at this very difficult time:

R. Steven Taylor is originally from Saint Louis, Missouri. Steve was raised in two religious cultures, Southern Baptist and Roman Catholic. He was ordained to the Christian ministry for the first time on November 12, 1972. He studied Theology, Music and Theater at Southwest Missouri State University. He went on to study Theology and French at Saint Meinrad Archabbey and Seminary in Southern Indiana. He also studied at the “Institut Catholique in Paris” and theater at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

In the late 1970s he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Togo, West Africa and went on to be Country Director in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Russia and Bulgaria. In 1994-1995 he was the interim pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of Washington, DC. From 1989 - 1996 he worked for the State Department in the Executive Program Division and was training Senior Foreign Service Officers for their positions around the world. In 1996 he moved to Russia where he was the Director of the United States Peace Corps’ operations in Moscow and in Vladivostok.

He was appointed Country Director of Peace Corps Bulgaria in August of 2000 and remained there until his current position in the State Department’s prestigious Senior Seminar. In 2002 Steve became the Coordinator of The Senior Seminar in the Leadership and Management School at Foreign Service Institute.

He was a member of the ordained Clergy and was ordained in UFMCC Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches at the General Conference in 1999. His final posting with the U.S. Foreign Service was to China, where he served in the Human Resources office of U.S. Embassy Beijing.