Stephen Dwight Thornhill

Stephen D. Thornhill, 68, went home to the Lord on April 10, 2025. He was born June 11, 1956, at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana to Bonnie (Newman) and Dwight (Jack) Thornhill. His mother Bonnie was a registered nurse, earning her degree via a WWII program that paid for her degree in exchange for being “drafted”. His father Jack was a construction superintendent. While growing up, he moved 19 times…Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and Georgia. After a brief period of riding bareback horses, roping, and rodeo clowning, he came to the realization rodeo may not be the best career choice. In November 1974, Steve enlisted in the USAF. After completing basic training at Lackland AFB TX, Steve was assigned to USAF Security Service, Kelly AFB TX, as a personnel specialist. His job required a Top Secret-SSIR clearance. This required a background check going back 20 years. Thanks to his mom, after numerous calls wondering what Stephen had done, his DD Form 398 was completed.

Steve spent the majority of his career in San Antonio TX. Other assignments were San Vito AB Italy, where Stephen Jr. was born, Maxwell AFB AL, where Michael was born, Randolph AFB TX, Kunsan AB Korea, and back to Randolph AFB TX, where he retired. While at Randolph AFB, he was assigned to HQ Air Force Personnel Center where he was instrumental in the development/deployment of personnel systems, APDS-II, PHASE IV, and PC-III. He was also the Air Force functional manager for the Personnel Systems Managers career field. Steve retired from the Air Force November 1994. He then became a contractor working on the Defense Civilian Personnel Data System (DCPDS) until 2000 when he went to Lockheed Martin as Operations Manager for DCPDS, where he retired in March 2013.

Steve loved to play golf and cruise. He spent many hours at Randolph Oaks golf course hitting that little white ball. He took over administration of the semi-annual Duckbutter golf tournament, held in Las Vegas NV. Over 20 guys played twice a year for over 20 years, and it still is going on today. Cruising became his passion, and it didn’t matter about the itinerary. Steve would always say, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” Steve will be greatly missed!

He was preceded in death by his father, Dwight Thornhill and his mother Bonnie (Newman) Thornhill.

He is survived by his wife Karen; sons Stephen Jr (Jeong) Thornhill and Michael (Natalie) Thornhill; daughters Melissa (Aaron) Teeler and Jennifer Welch; his grandchildren Madsion and Jackson Thornhill, Corbin and Kayla Teeler; his brother David; and numerous cousins.

A memorial service will be held Wednesday April 23, 2025, at 12:00pm. Following the memorial service, we will be meeting at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery Shelter # 2, where Military Honors will be rendered at 2:15 pm.

In Lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Stephen's name to Honor Flight of San Antonio or the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.