Stephen Robert Krone

10-01-1944 Born in Lock Haven, PA

1962 Somerville High School

Somerville, NJ

1966 Brown University

Providence, RI

1969 Dickinson School of Law

Carlisle, PA

1969 – 2012 Staff Attorney at Central Penn, then Mid Penn Legal Services, Harrisburg, PA (43 years)

Steve graduated from Somerville High School in the spring of 1962 and started at Brown University in the fall. John F. Kennedy was president. Impressed as he was with JFK’s inaugural words of service: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country,’ Steve began to think of a career in public service. By the time he graduated from DSL in 1969, the fledgling national legal services program to provide funding for legal services for the poor had begun to take shape. An offshoot of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and LBJ’s war on poverty, the push was to establish local offices across the nation (“neighborhood” legal services) to be close to the citizens to be served.

Harrisburg was the natural location for a central PA Legal Services office. Even before their 1969 graduation, a group of DSL students were hard at work at this new endeavor; Steve remained on the job for 43 years. He tirelessly served his clients and also worked with the courts, often proposing rules changes that would improve Legal Services clients’ access to the legal system. Well into retirement, he continued to mentor legal services attorneys and as late as 2019, proposed procedural rules changes for consideration by the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas.

Along the way, on August 29, 1992, then Harrisburg Mayor Steve Reed proclaimed Steve Krone Day in honor of his years of public service. The real thrill for Steve in that recognition was his opportunity to throw out the first pitch in the Senators game on City Island.

Steve is survived by his wife and son, Kathy and Scott (also grand dog Toby), cousins and in laws as well as friends, colleagues, and co-workers as close as family. Interment will be later, along PA trails and trout streams, spots where Steve, Scott and Toby spent many happy days over the last 5 years.

Although Steve survived stage 4 colon cancer in 1984 and had 35 years being cancer-free, he was diagnosed in recent years with myelofibrosis, an uncommon blood cancer, too aggressive to overcome.

If you are considering a donation, please support Mid Penn Legal Services (a United Way recipient) or the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.