Alumni Hall of Fame
Service to St. Marys City Schools (2023)

Onnolee (Hipp) Steva, a native of St. Marys, Ohio, was a member of the St. Marys High School Class of 1921.

After high school, Miss Hipp attended Bowling Green State University for two years before returning to St. Marys to teach second grade for one year. She then returned to Bowling Green State University for two years to earn her Bachelor of Science Degree in Education. She again returned to St. Marys to teach math at Memorial High School. In the ensuing years, during the summer months, Miss Hipp completed the course work necessary to earn her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Education from Bowling Green State University. Onnolee then continued to take courses in the summer months to earn a Master’s Degree in Business Education from Columbia University in New York City in 1940.

Onnolee’s work ethic extended beyond the classroom. During World War II, she worked part-time after school and evenings at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in St. Marys. She not only helped the war effort but also gained practical business experience, which benefitted her students. In 1942, Miss. Hipp became Mrs. Onnolee Steva when she married Emil Steva, who taught Latin at Memorial High School.

In her 47 year teaching career in St. Marys City Schools, Mrs. Steva garnered the love, respect, and admiration of legions of young women who were her charges in her shorthand, typing, and intensive office education classes, and who participated in the women’s business group, the Scratch and Peck Club. In the classroom, she was tough and demanding but also instilled in her students a great work ethic, a desire to excel, and a drive to set high goals for themselves and achieve those goals in the business world once they graduated from Memorial. Mrs. Steva prided herself in her care of her students as she helped place graduating seniors in jobs locally and throughout state and federal government agencies. She developed an outstanding reputation in the business community. If Mrs. Steva recommended someone for a job it was considered a solid hire. Businesses knew her recommended individuals would be dedicated employees who would perform their duties with the best business practices, and treat clients with great respect. After all, they were “Steva trained.” Mrs. Steva retired from St. Marys City Schools in 1972.

Mrs. Steva was just as dedicated to the St. Marys community as she was to her classroom and students. She was a charter member, trustee, and secretary of the St. Marys Community Foundation, a member of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, the Friends of the Community Library, treasurer of the Western Auglaize County Chapter of the Red Cross, past president of the St. Marys Teachers Association, and member of the Auglaize County Retired Teachers. In 1982, Mrs. Onnolee Steva was named “Woman of the Year” by the St. Marys Business and Professional Woman’s Club. Annually, the St. Marys Community Foundation awards the Emil and Onnolee Steva Scholarship to a graduating senior from St. Marys Memorial High School.

In her spare time, Onnolee loved stamp collecting, reading, and traveling to all 50 states of the United States, throughout Europe, and to every continent of the World.

Mrs. Onnolee Steva passed away on December 22, 1998, and was laid to rest at Elm Grove Cemetery.

For her dedication to teaching decades of St. Marys students and her active participation with school clubs; for her influence in the lives of many young women that extended well beyond their time in Mrs. Steva’s classroom, and her impeccable business reputation in the St. Marys community and beyond, the St. Marys Memorial High School Alumni Foundation inducts Mrs. Onnolee (Hipp) Steva into the St. Marys Memorial High School Alumni Foundation’s Hall of Fame for outstanding Service to St. Marys City Schools.