Byus, Stephen

Stephen Byus

Reynoldsburg, Ohio

 Feather Location: Row K, #04

Jim Woods / The Columbus Dispatch

…“He was a good guy, and he always had a smile on his face,” Daniel Byus said of his brother.  Steve Byus played football, baseball and basketball and graduated in 1993 from Wellston High School.  Daniel Byus said his brother was on his third tour of duty in a war zone with the U.S. Naval Reserve.

John Derrow, 50, grew up on Michigan Avenue near the Byus family.  “It’s just a sad day,” Derrow said as he fought back tears. “You see it every day in the paper — but this.”

Steve Byus was active in the Boy Scouts and Derrow thinks that he had earned an Eagle Scout rank.  Growing up, there were endless games of Wiffle ball and other sports in the backyard, Derrow said.  “It was the days before social media with Facebook and Twitter,” Derrow said. “Everybody was friends.”

Todd DuPree, 40, who now lives in Columbia, S.C., said he remembers growing up in Wellston and “ how we would wake up at sunrise and play all day together.”…“I am just looking at Facebook here and thinking, “Is it real?’ ”…

Carver:  Emmit R. Joy

Wood: Butternut