Writing Steve’s biography is like a walk through history. President Clinton, Vice President Biden and President Obama talk about their meager beginnings. Probably the closest to Steve’s would have been President Clinton’s as they both suffered similar circumstances.

Steven Kay Neuenschwander was born July 29, 1947 at a hospital for low income families in Louisville, Kentucky. He was named Donald Ray Montgomery. This name will become significant later as we delve into Steve’s natural ancestral tree. Steve’s parents were average citizens of Louisville. His mother, Elary, and father Robert Montgomery both worked to provide the normal needs of a family. His mother worked in a factory that made blinds and his father was a machinist for International Harvester. At that time they manufactured tractor cabins that move semi-trailers and farm machinery. They also manufactured the original jeep. Steve was the 5th of 8 children which consisted of four boys (he was the youngest) and four girls. He had two older sisters and two younger sisters. There was one serious problem in the Montgomery household. Steve’s father was a womanizer and an alcoholic. The financial burden from those habits compounded by a large family financially destroyed his family. On two occasions his three older brothers were removed from the home and placed in a boy’s shelter. His mother fought hard for their return. Shortly after the return, the eighth child, a girl, was born into the family. Before we continue we must better understand the conditions that this family lived.

There is little information of the early years of the Montgomery family. However, the final years of this family as a unit was near squalor living. Their home was located across the street from the Ohio River which is the northern border of both Kentucky and the City of Louisville. It was a former mom and pop grocery store consisting of two rooms and a basement. It had outdoor plumbing. The front room served as both the living room and bedroom. The back room served as the kitchen and where people bathed. The living room had only a single double bed and a dresser. The back room consisted of a small kitchen table with four chairs. When the family had a meal it was in small groups or people simply standing around the table or the countertop. This never presented a problem.

His father’s alcoholism grew more severe as time progressed. By the time his younger sister was born, the three oldest boys had been displaced once again. Food became scarce and sleeping arrangement lent themselves to the four older children, now Steve and three sisters sleeping sideways across the bed. There mom and baby sister and dad when he made it home, sleeping on the floor next to the bed. Meals resembled mostly bread and water during the week and possibly enough subsistence for two or three meals on the week end when his mother received her paycheck from the blind factory. The crowning blow to the demise of his family came late one night. They were all awakened by the screams on their now six week old sister. As his mother rose up to examine her she found a rat; there were plenty of them living in the basement; trying to bite the newborn’s face. Father no longer existed as a member of the household from that moment and subsequently stopped providing any form of family support. It was not much of a loss, as his income generally went to buy drinks for other women and himself at local bars he came across every night on his way home from work.  It was at this point, that Steve’s mother could no longer provide for the remaining children and became seriously delinquent on rent and utilities.

It should be pointed out that Steve credits the fact that he even has a life to his three older brothers. On a daily basis, even while living in shelters, walked the river bank, the railroad tracks and streets every day after school to find empty and strewn soda and beer bottles. They would turn these in to a local market and receive two or three pennies per bottle. From the money they received they exchanged it for food; always getting milk for the baby and with the remaining change to buy bread. They often saved fruit they received from the shelter and give that to their younger siblings to eat. In the picture you will find Steve on the far right. Take note of his protruding stomach. He suffered from extreme malnutrition. A condition that was remedied later but also for all the children their lack of nutrients took a toll on their physical and mental growth in their childhood growing and learning years.

Once Steve’s mother could no longer manage the financial needs of the family the city and welfare stepped in as well as the local law enforcement to physically remove all of them from the home. That was the last time Steve and his four sisters ever saw their mother again. They were all whisked off to a couple of different children’s homes. Steve and his second youngest sister were adopted by one couple from Bluffton, Indiana. It was later learned that his oldest sister was adopted by a couple who worked for the federal government in Panama and his baby sister was adopted by a Louisville attorney and his wife. The three older brothers remained in a boy’s home until they graduated from high school and then set out on their own. His older brother eventually went to a junior college and later become an assistant to the Governor of Kentucky and lives in Frankfurt, Kentucky. His second older brother had a printing shop in one of the state prisons for men. He is now deceased. He suffered from various stages of hepatitis and finally Alzheimer’s. His older sister now lives with her husband in Eastern/Central Illinois and his baby sister still lives in Louisville, Kentucky. The second oldest sister has never been officially located.

On a warm September day, a two tone grey Chevy drove up to the children’s home where Steve and his second younger sister resided. They were met and introduced to a nice couple; then escorted to the car and drove off Northbound toward a new life in Bluffton, Indiana. The actual address was 820 South Johnson Street. The couple that had decided to adopt Steve and his sister was hard working middle class people. Later that fall they were both adopted and Donald Ray Montgomery legally became Steven Kay Neuenschwander. His sister’s name was appropriately changed as well.
          
His father, a WWII veteran, worked for his uncle at an oil distribution company located in a nearby town of Berne, Indiana. His mother was an elementary school teacher although at that time was now a stay at home mom. Steve recalls that he still remembers the first Christmas. It was so overwhelming with a showering of love from not just the immediate family but the extended family. He had a great aunt and uncle living in Bluffton which was on an ongoing basis the gathering of Sunday meals and later a sleep over and often the babysitter. His other great aunt and uncle, owners of the oil distribution company, were often the place of other Sunday gatherings. On his mother side, his two aunts, uncles and grandparents certainly made up for any void that could have possibly remained in his young life. Getting back to that first Christmas, it was like winning the grand prize on a game show. Besides the tree surrounded by gifts at home, Christmas night at his aunt and uncles house at 755 West Water, Street in Berne, Indiana was a night any child would remember forever. The family gathered in the remodeled basement for the formal meal. Afterwards a distant relative and next door neighbor dressed up like Santa. It was not the excitement of seeing Santa for the first time as it was the bags of gifts that kept coming down the stairs. In the eyes of a five year old it was like a train that would never stop. He said dad couldn’t load all the gifts in the trunk of the Chevy so he borrowed the company pickup truck and they took both vehicles home. Steve’s school days were a rough road to both physical and mental recovery. His sister suffered the same fate. Steve started the next year in Kindergarten at a Bluffton elementary school. He recalls that it was within walking distance of his home. He also recalls that during kindergarten and first grade he often got sidetrack getting back to the house and mom would have to go looking for him. Jumping in the mud puddles was not exactly pleasing to his mom’s loving nature. A good scolding and a hug and restriction were usually the reward for his actions. He talks about a significant event of learning to tie his shoes and spell his name. It was during the winter of his Kindergarten year that he could not go outside and build a snowman with his sister and dad until he had learned both. Learning to tie his shoes was accomplished far sooner than learning to spell his name. From Jefferson Street they moved to a 160 acre farm in Northern Wells County, the county of location of the City of Bluffton. The move was precipitated by his mother returning to the work force and taking a position as one of two second grade school teachers. Even though Steve had completed first grade, it was a rough road. His parents decided to try it again. Steve found the second try a little easier. He attended Lancaster Central School until the end of the first semester of sixth grade and then transferred to Berne Elementary School for the second semester. His parents had purchased an acre of land from his great aunt and uncle and were building a home. It was a typical middle class ranch home with 3 bedroom, two full baths, two car garage and single level at the edge of town. The interesting fact of its location is that while he and his sister attend the Berne School system just about 3 or 4 blocks from the house, its location was in a different school district. He remembers the various discussions over the course of the summer and the decision to pay the tuition versus the busing four miles to another school. Steve eventually graduated from Berne High School, now South Adams High School in 1966. During his school years he was active in football, baseball, band, orchestra, choir, drama and tap dancing, the later taking place in his earlier elementary years. His dad introduced him to the game of golf and as he puts it, I enjoyed the game but was very pathetic at it. It provided several opportunities to bond with one of his two closest friends. Steve’s educational achievements continued to struggle.

His high school transcripts were less than stellar. I think his final placement was somewhere just below the middle of his class. Most perplexing for him was math. He recalls taking geometry in the first semester of one year.

His teacher told him if he would change to general math he was give him a passing grade. He took the advice. Ironically his dreams and aspirations were at a much higher level than his academic achievement to date. He grew up watching Perry Mason and other legal shows on television. As his great uncle had close friends who were bank presidents and senior partners in a couple of law firms he brushed shoulders with them on an ongoing basis. Steve did not have the grades to enter the standard four year state supported colleges. He had wanted to go to Purdue University with his three cousins. Instead he entered Vincennes Junior College in Vincennes, Indiana on a pre-law program. After taking remedial English he embarked on his normal curriculum. This is where he also met his first love although a very brief relationship. He said it would not have been so bad had it not been for two show stopping subjects called Botany and Zoology. He remembers studying half the night for the final in Botany. In the end it was a test of twigs and identifying the common and scientific names of each one. Unfortunately, half the test was on the birch family. The test did not bode well in his favor. He recalls that every Saturday there was a lab class for botany. The professor would put 20 questions in the box (20 students). Each would draw a question. If you got the question right you got 10 points and if you got it wrong you got zero. That was your score for the week. The actual demise of his first efforts in college was due to immaturity, living in off campus housing, an emergency appendectomy and simply too much diversion of the task at hand. He transferred to International Business College in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Like Vincennes University it was a challenge.

Steve entered International Business College with the intent to earn an Associate’s degree in Business Administration. It was 1967 and he finally graduated in 1979. Actually a lot took place in his life during that span of years. Like Vincennes overcoming the learning curve was difficult. He lived in an apartment off campus with several of his high school friends. This time, everyone had their nose to the grindstone. His difficulty was a certain type of test question dealing with listings. He was always getting one set of listings confused with another set of listings. However, he learned to overcome and actually started making above average grades. During the second year of school he faced financial issues and temporarily dropped out of school and went to work for General Electric as a packer/shipper. It was from their he was offered a job with a small accounting firm which agreed to hire him if he could get a one year deferment from the military draft. Unfortunately, in trying to keep his school deferment he gave away that he was not then actually going to school and was informed he was now numero uno on the draft list. He enlisted into the Marine Corp for two years.

Marine Corps basic training was at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, California. After six weeks of grueling training he was reassigned to Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California for initial infantry training and administrative schools training. Upon completion he was assigned to Marine Corps Base Twenty-nine Palms, California where he completed his enlistment as an administrative clerk, legal clerk and court reporter for the Base Judge Advocate’s Office. He returned home.

Upon arriving back home with his bride in tow, he moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana where he worked as a skip tracer for GAC Finance for a short time. Getting laid off, he and his wife moved to her father’s home in Denver, Colorado where he assisted his father-in-law promoting his camping tent attachment to automobiles. They formed a corporation for a brief time, but was taken over by General Motors. Steve then went to work as a production foreman for a small western ware company. Steve says that during his transition back into civilian life he never overcome his restlessness and decided to rejoin the military. This time he enlisted in the United States Air Force as an administrative specialist and quickly transferred back into the legal career field where he remained until his retirement on 1 March 1994. His Air Force career offered many opportunities.

During his twenty years in the Air Force he was charged with managing many aspects of the career field. His most noteworthy accomplishments came as an instructor at the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s School where he taught Claims and Tort Litigation, managed all the curriculum support materials and authored/co-authored to field reference manuals that were published for over ten years. During his tenure at Homestead Air Force Base, he was deployed to Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. Assigned to the Headquarters US Central Air Force Command Office he assisted in the establishment of the criminal justice system for the Air Force which included 20 deployed sites and the headquarters in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. He was tasked with the management of the program as well as assisting in the Geneva Convention and Law of Armed Conflict issues of the war. In addition to this assignment he had four remote tours in South Korea at Kunsan and Osan Air Bases as well as a limited assignment to CDI Incirlik, Turkey and Ramstein Air Base, Germany. He was named Pacific Air Force’s Paralegal of the Year in 1981 and his office as the manager won the Pacific Legal Office of the Year in 1993 at Osan Air Base. Besides a list of medals and awards he was award two Air Force Achievement Medals, two Air Force Commendation Medals and two Air Force Meritorious Service Medals. In addition he was also awarded two Southwest Asia service medals, the Kuwait Liberation Medal, and the Korean Civilian Service Medal for his work as a US civilian employee.

Steve served six years as a GS-9 for the United States Army in South Korea. Those duties included the Legal Administrator for Yongsan Army Garrison and two satellite offices. He was the first to bring electronic tax filing for both national and state tax returns to US employees working in South Korea. He established the first cable telephone system for the Army in South Korea as well as created a local area network for his office and assisted in the development of a wide area network for all Army judge advocate offices located in South Korea. He accepted the assignment as the Civilian Misconduct Action Officer and Law and Order Officer for the Army’s Area II Support Group, (approximately 7 installations) were his duties required him to hear and administer sanctions against civilians assigned, or who have access to military installations. Over the course of three years he presided over 1500 cases arranging from shoplifting, school truancy, black marketing, to vehicular manslaughter. He was also the approving authority for the personnel and vehicle access to these same installations.

Steve returned to the US upon the notification of the terminal illness of his mother. After her death he went on to obtain a real estate license in Indiana and later in Washington. He is a life member of the Veteran’s of Foreign War and a member of the American Legion.

Steve’s educational background spans the course of over 30 years of continual education. While only actually holding an associate’s degree in business from International Business College he has acquired an enormous amount of credits from various universities and colleges during his military career. Here is a synopsis:
Community College of the Air Force, Bus Mgt, Sem Hrs – 54
Indiana Institute of Technology, Bus Mgt, Qtr Hrs – 24.5
International Business College, AABA, 1979, Qtr Hrs - 90
Vincennes University, Pre-Law, Sem Hrs – 10.5
University of Maryland, Bus Mgt, Qtr Hrs – 27.5

I had mentioned that Steve has a unique genealogy.

While I won’t go into it here, he has invited you to the family genealogy cite on Ancestry.com website managed by his daughter Kimberli Taylor. You are free to click on both the Montgomery and Neuenschwander tree links. The Montgomery tree goes back to the early 1000s AD and crisscrosses the British royal tree several times. The Neuenschwander tree originates in Switzerland. Steve credits his life and successes to his three brothers, natural mother and adopted parents. He said this.

“I feel that I am here today as a result of my three older brothers who in the hardest of times loved their family enough that even though they could have simply walked away were there for us on a daily basis doing what they could as young boys to find food to put on the table to keep the rest of us going. It takes a great deal of love for a mother to give up her family and pass them along to another couple so they have a fighting chance in life. My adopted parents love and devotion and determination to provide me and my one adopted sister all the benefits of life they could give, is the sole reason of my success in life. I call myself, Kentucky born, corn fed and church raised. These elements are the very fabric of my soul. Hillary Clinton said “it takes a village to raise a child.” I disagree. It takes a family to raise a child.”