Stephen Varva

A beloved member of Butler Country Club who was also a well-known insurance agent in Butler County died Thursday morning.

Stephen A. Varva, 62, died Thursday morning at home, after what his close friend Dr. Tony Smaldino said was a lengthy battle with cancer. Smaldino said Varva had beat cancer diagnoses before, but about 15 months ago the disease returned and was worse than before.

Varva grew up in Butler and graduated from Penn State University before returning to Butler and working as a claims adjuster for Nationwide Insurance in the mid-1980s.

Both joined Butler Country Club on the same day in 1991, said Smaldino, who reflected on Varva’s love of family and golf, and his keen understanding of history and legacy.

“Steve Varva was a special person,” he said. “He had a keen understanding and sentimental sense for his elders and everybody that passed before him from Butler Country Club and Butler. He just understood what family was all about.”

Varva would marry his wife, Tammy, in 1983 and go on to start his own branch of Nationwide Insurance in 1985. The couple have two adult daughters, Lindsie and Stephanie Varva.

Varva and Smaldino began their friendship as two of the country club’s youngest members, but as the years passed Smaldino said he watched his friend grow into an elder statesman among golfers at the club, where he was known for keeping a local competition known as “The Shootout” organized and humming.

“Everybody leaned on him as ‘The Boss’ — that’s what they called him,” Smaldino said. “He was just an incredible leader. He wasn’t loud or boisterous or demeaning. He just had incredible character. He was the glue.”

When he wasn’t at work or the country club, Smaldino said, Varva and his wife frequented one of their favorite destinations — Las Vegas, where the insurance adjustor nurtured a surprising passion: roulette. The game, in which a spinning ball falls onto one of 38 colored and numbered panels on a spinning wheel, and players bet on the outcome, is notorious for long odds of winning.

“He just enjoyed the action,” Smaldino said. “He played it endlessly. He was one of the few people who could beat a game with the worst odds in Vegas.”

His obituary appears on Page 3.