Editor’s note: This is the fourth story in a five-part series that highlights five ISU veterans who are being inducted into the Gold Star Hall war memorial on Monday.

Stephen Rushing was a gregarious person – a talker. When he wasn’t talking or sleeping, he was reading, eager to learn.

Born in Florida on Nov. 26, 1949, Stephen was a baby boomer when his father returned from World War II and went to college. The oldest of four children, Stephen often tested his parents’ patience with his beliefs, opinions and views of the world around him.

Michael Rushing, Stephen’s younger brother, said one of the things they did as children was climb trees.

“We would see who could drop out of the trees from the highest level without breaking anything,” Michael said.

Stephen’s mother, Joan Rushing, remembers her two sons being “really, really, close.”

Stephen was also involved in the theater.

“He was a real theatrical kind of person,” Michael said. “He was in some of the productions in high school and carried that onto normal life, too.”

Stephen was into reading so much that he wasn’t particularly interested in getting a driver’s license.

“He always thought there was too much potential for hurting someone with a car,” Michael said.

Stephen played football in high school and ran cross country.

“After he left football, he go on the debating team,” Joan said. “That was more his cup of tea.”

At 15, Stephen and the Rushing family moved to Ames, Iowa.

Coming to Iowa State in the fall of 1967, Stephen majored in philosophy, always seeing the deeper side of things.

“Don’t hug me mom, because I don’t want you to try and influence me,” Joan recalled her son saying to her. “I don’t want to try and decide to just stay home or to go.”

Although Stephen’s family lived here in Ames, the rambunctious teenager wanted more of his college life, and decided to live in the basement of St. John’s by the Campus Episcopal Church, 2338 Lincoln Way, in Campustown.

“That’s what he lived for, was that social interaction,” Michael said.

Joan spoke of Sunday mornings and Stephen bringing his friends over for his father’s sourdough waffles after church.

Michael said that his brother was never really into the hippie movement and protesting the war.

“He and his friends would have discussions about the morality of the war and what we should do,” Michael said. “Some of his friends burned their draft cards. He never actually did that, but they talked about it.”

Stephen’s mother told a different story.

“He was going to go to prison rather than go in the service,” Joan said. “Then father Havlin talked to him a lot and told him that ‘You really need to do this.’ Actually I was the one who said it was the law.”

Michael said that his brother was handsome and was liked by everybody, but didn’t share his love interests with his family because they would always “raze” him about the girls.

But Stephen’s college career lasted only a year when he decided to drop out of college in the fall of 1968.

“It was with a philosophical issue he had with people having deferments for going to college,” Michael said. “He thought that wasn’t a fair system.”

Michael said that when Stephen made the decision to drop out of college, he lost his deferment and was subsequently drafted. Stephen entered the Army in 1969 and went to NCO school, attaining the rank of sergeant within a year.

“He wasn’t happy about being in the Army, but he was dedicated,” Michael said.

On May 18th, 1970, Stephen was shipped off to fight in Vietnam.

His tour was supposed to last 18 months, but on July 30, 1970, Stephen was killed by small-arms fire in the jungles of Binh Dinh Province. He was 20 years old.

“I was in the Navy when I heard the news,” Michael said. “I was in training in Memphis, Tenn. I remember this so well. They wanted me to talk to the Naval Chaplain.”

Michael said someone had written on the chalkboard, “Rushing, call your family.”

Michael said that he then called his mom, and she told him that this was not how she wanted him to find out about the death of his older brother.

Stephen’s mother remembers that day vividly.

“It was Sunday morning and we were just getting ready to leave for church,” Joan said. “A soldier was walking up our driveway and when we saw him coming,” Joan said pausing with sigh, “We knew the reason he was coming. It was the day after he was killed.”

Stephen’s funeral was at St. John’s by the Campus Episcopal Church, where he lived while at Iowa State, on Aug. 10, 1970. Michael said the funeral “was packed” with friends and family.

Stephen was cremated and taken to Tampa, Florida with his mother.

He said that Stephen really wanted to come back to school, after his time in the Army, in the spring of 1971.

“He was so concerned about not hurting other people, being a pacifist, and of course they send him over to shoot people in Vietnam,” Michael said.

The Rushing family often wondered if that’s the reason he was killed – “because, when it came right down to it, he couldn’t take somebody else’s life.”