John Steven Schumacher

John Steven Schumacher: November 14, 1956 - August 20, 2024. John is predeceased by his mother Elizabeth Shaw Schumacher, father John Jacob Schumacher, brother Walter Francis Schumacher, and cousin Thomas Schumacher. John is survived by his sister Alice, her husband Jim, their adult children: Nicole, Christopher (Elizabeth Sprecher), and Elizabeth, sixteen cousins, friends Hartmut, Larry, Vivek, Bruce and David, and others too numerous to mention.

John loved stories. He loved to read them, he loved to write them, and he loved to tell them. It’s no wonder then that he became a tax preparer, starting first at H&R Block, then moving to Washington D.C. to work at the Government Accounting office, and finally opening his successful tax firm which he ran for over 30 years. For John, every tax return told a story: of births and deaths, of businesses opened and businesses closed, of dreams begun and dreams ended. When John met with a tax client he didn’t just look at the numbers, he looked at the story behind the numbers. His clients became his friends. They gifted him with paintings, pottery, and other treasures. Other times he was gifted with vacations to luxurious locales, which delighted John, for he loved to travel. He lost count, but it is fair to say he visited at least seventy five percent of the countries on this Earth and those travels were the source of both his joy and the source of many of the riveting stories he told.

For all the joy in John’s life, he was no stranger to darkness and despair. He suffered periods of deep depression and used drugs to cope with that pain. He lost years of his life to drugs, hoping they would help him cope with the depression that dragged him under. Each time it seemed there was no returning from hopelessness, it was the kindness and compassion from others that helped John start again. Sister John Marie at Gift of Love gave John food, shelter, and a home when he needed it. Peter Claver House was a place to call home while he got back on his feet and Dr. Monica Ghandi took an interest in John that went far beyond the doctor/patient relationship, developing into a deep and abiding friendship. With the help of Dr. Ghandi, John survived his AIDS/HIV diagnosis for almost 30 years.

Always a seeker, in his traveling days John visited the Ashram of Ramana Maharisha in Nadu; the Asura Cave in Nepal; the Blue Lagoon in the Sinai Desert; even the Ashram in Kerala, India. It was close to home, however, that John finally found true peace at The Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in San Francisco, an extraordinary Roman Catholic community that opens its doors to everyone, most importantly to John, the LGBTQ+ community.

It was at The Church of the Most Holy Redeemer that John felt understood and found a spiritual home in the faith he was raised in, holding fast to the church’s most important tenant: love one another. With the guidance of Father Matt, John finally felt worthy of God’s love. And it was at that church, just a few days after John’s passing that so many people gathered to express all the ways John had made their lives better. Wealth, travel, luxury - John had had all those things, finding the greatest riches in loving relationships. In the last few years of his life, John found spiritual joy, finally achieving that inner balance that had always eluded him. He found peace.