Lucille Luck Stefan

At age 92, Lucy passed away with her family at her side on December 6, 2015. She has gone on her last adventure after a wonderful long life. Loving wife to Karl Stefan, loving mother and grandmother to five children, and eleven grandchildren. Her great spirit will live on in everyone she knew. She was an inspiration to many, including aeronautical engineering students and balloonists. Her wit and thoughtfulness made so many happy.

Among Lucy's long list of achievements and adventures is receiving an Amelia Earhart Scholarship from Zonta International for a master's degree program in aeronautical engineering at the University of Minnesota in 1948. There she met Karl Stefan, a USN aircraft carrier pilot, in one of her classes. When he asked her to marry him, he was scheduled for duty to the Mediterranean, so she booked passage on a freighter and met him in each port, traveling by train. Lucy enjoyed meeting and talking with the local people in the small towns.

Lucy's nickname, Sparky, aptly fit her personality. She joined the flying club in St. Paul when she was in high school. She was an avid hot-air balloonist. She and Karl were inducted into the Ballooning Hall of Fame in 2009. Her Commercial Pilot, Lighter Than Air, Free Balloon License is dated October 31, 1973. She also had a fixed wing aircraft pilot's license. Lucy's most spectacular gas balloon flights were three that she had flying over the Swiss Alps, landing twice in Germany and once in Italy. Her curiosity gave her the courage to take risks.

As her friend Ned Wick said, "To write a book on Lucy Stefan? Where would one begin; where would one end? Because Lucy lives without a beginning; she is Lucy. And, no ending, because with Lucy there is no ending… she has "Just one more thing to say… to do… another mountain to climb…. Another trip to take."

Donations may be made to the Zonta International Amelia Earhart Fellowship Fund, the Audubon Society, or the Pancreatic Cancer Organization (PANCAN).