Father Steven was born on May 7, 1956, in Stockton, California to Henry and Melvina Foppiano. The family farmed orchards and row crops as well as a fruit packing company and commercial walnut harvest firm. The Foppianos had entered the area directly from Genoa, Italy during the gold rush of 1850 and soon settled into farming. Today his brother, Skip Foppiano, continues the family farming and agribusiness tradition while his sister is an assistant vice president at the University of Pacific. His parents are deceased of natural causes and his younger sister, Kelli, died in an accident.

While living near Stockton, Father Steven attended rural schools, graduating from Waterloo Grammar School in 1970 and Linden Unified High School in 1974. He worked in the family business and his own small businesses until age 24. Then several financial setbacks set his mind to return to college. During the college years he worked at Vagabond Inns, first in Stockton and then in San Diego, California. He transferred from San Joaquin Delta College to receive from San Diego State University in 1984 a B.S. in Business Management and a B.A, (with distinction), in Economics.

His first post college job was with the Pepsi Company’s Frito-Lay division in Cucamonga, California. After a year, he returned to Stockton in 1985 and changed firms to Laura Scudder's Potato Chip Company. There he worked as Shipping Supervisor, Production Manager and finally Distribution Manager. Notified of the upcoming closing of the Tracy plant, in 1988 he began work for Tri Valley Growers. It was a San Francisco based Fortune 500 Company and the largest canner in the world.

While working for Tri Valley Growers he also studied for and received an MBA degree at California State University, Stanislaus. A 1991 promotion to the Gridley plant brought about the purchase of a house in nearby Oroville. There, after a 15 year absence, he returned to the Church and began attending Mass. While originally this was for social reasons, a rediscovered faith would bring him to leave his corporate career and enter the seminary to study for the priesthood. At Saint Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park he received a MA in Divinity, MS in Theology and a pontifical degree, the STB.

After seminary he was appointed by Bishop Weigand to be a deacon at Saint Clare Parish (its second deacon). He started the same day the new Church was dedicated, in January of 2002. In May that year he was ordained to the priesthood and served his first Mass at St. Clare, followed by a parish celebration. He served as the first Parochial Vicar at St. Clare until March of 2003 when Bishop Weigand appointed him to be the Pastor of St. Thomas More Parish in Paradise. He remained Pastor at St. Thomas More for over 7 years and then returned to Saint Clare in July of 2010 to serve as its fifth pastor. He says that he is happy and excited to return to the parish in which he began his ministry.

Our beloved pastor, Fr. Steven, passed away peacefully October 29th, 2013. He was a wonderful pastor, priest, mentor, confessor, teacher and friend to our parish. We will miss him but know his spirit will live on in our beautiful parish. 

He was preceded in death by his parents, Henry and Melvina Foppiano and sister Kelli Foppiano, survived by his brother Skip (Lynette) Foppiano and sister Jane (Greg) Lewis; nephew Henry Foppiano, nieces Nicole Foppiano, Jaimie (Matt) Bergen, Jennifer Lewis and Janelle (Scott) Anderson and grand niece Jenna Marie Bergen.