Accident Aboard Sun Princess Results in Death of Minnesota Pastor

A Minnesota pastor named Stephen Junker has died after sustaining a serious spinal cord injury in a swimming pool aboard the Sun Princess while the cruise ship was sailing off the coast of Italy.

Junker, 58, died on September 4, several weeks after the incident occurred in August. He had been traveling aboard the ship to attend his son’s wedding when he was discovered face down and unresponsive in a pool.

According to a fundraising page created for the family, the Italian Coast Guard transported Junker to a hospital in Naples for emergency spinal surgery on August 17. The procedure was carried out in an attempt to relieve pressure on his spinal cord and stabilize the damaged area of his neck.

The spinal cord injury left him quadriplegic and reliant on a ventilator and his family subsequently made arrangements for him to be transported back to Minnesota, where he could receive further treatment at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. He arrived there on August 23.

Junker’s daughter, Elizabeth, later announced through an update on the family’s fundraising page that he had died surrounded by relatives and friends.

“Further diagnostic testing had revealed injuries that were not treatable,” she wrote. “We’re glad we were able to give him the opportunity to receive world-class care and reassured that everything that could possibly be done to help him was done.”

Before entering the ministry, Junker worked as a pharmacist after graduating from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. He later completed a Master of Divinity at Lutheran Brethren Seminary in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, before becoming an ordained minister.

Junker spent almost a decade serving as pastor of Chippewa Lutheran Church in Brandon, Minnesota. His obituary remembered him for his lively sermons, ability to discuss a broad range of subjects and readiness to offer help to those who needed it.

“Pastor Steve was a wonderful person, loved by many, and had a great impact on many people through his faith,” his wife, Jeanine Junker, said in a statement shared by the church.

Junker married Jeanine in 1992, and the couple had five children. He is also survived by their children’s spouses, a grandson, his parents and his sister.