Michael Joseph Stancampiano

On May 8, 2025, our father, Michael Joseph Stancampiano, came to his final place of rest. He was born on December 9, 1945, in Flushing, New York, to Joseph Jeremiah Stancampiano and Maxine L. Stancampiano. He was the eldest of eight and enjoyed his place of leadership amongst his siblings. In 1949, he and his parents moved to Oklahoma City, OK, where Michael attended Catholic school and was an altar boy. After high school, he attended the Seminary (or as he referred to it “the school for unwed fathers”). After a year he left and enrolled at the University of Oklahoma graduating 1968 with a degree in History. His next calling was to study law which he did at Oklahoma City University, following in his father’s footsteps. After his first year in law school, he was drafted and deployed to Vietnam in 1970. Upon returning, he then did a cross-country road trip that landed him in Seattle, WA. While he worked as an auto mechanic and took some time to recover from the war, he met a small Texan that would change his life, the soon to be Kathryn A. Stancampiano. Together they had five children, Jeremiah Joseph Stancampiano, Michaelangelo Stancampiano, Joseph Harper Stancampiano (died at 2 months of age), Joseph Alexander Stancampiano and finally a girl, Juliana Marie Stancampiano. Michael then re-enrolled in law school back in Oklahoma, graduated in 1974, and started to practice law for Legal Services of Eastern Oklahoma as well as representing the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma in the Indian Child Welfare Act Matters. Always the one looking for adventure he took a job in late 1981 for the Bureau of Indian Affairs located in Juneau, Alaska. He spent four years there before taking on the Superintendent role in Fairbanks, Alaska, for 7 years. He, Kathy and the kids spent these years running dogs, playing music with friends and trying to convince any relative to move North with them. Alas this didn’t happen and, in 1992, they packed up and headed to the four corners of Colorado. Michael was the Prosecutor for the Ute Mountain Ute Court of Indian Offenses until 1997 when he was then appointed tribal court judge for the Southern Ute Indian Tribe. In 2000, he rejoined the BIA agency at Southern Ute as the Superintendent for 5 years. In 2005, Michael became a Federal Court Indian Probate Judge out of Sacramento where he held probate hearings up and down the west coast. He cleared ALL the backlog of cases and at the end of the two years his boss walked in and he had his feet up and he was reading a book. He was offered to continue the work from Durango, CO, flying out from there to help with the backlog of cases across the US. He quickly accepted and would travel about the country, often with Kathy, helping the native people conclude estates of their loved ones. After Kathy died in 2013, Michael spent the rest of his life with family and friends, being survived by his four adult children and 11 grandkids.

We will honor his life with a memorial in Oklahoma City on May 17, 2025. Any friends and family can stop by his home between 12-5pm to see his life collection and share stories with his kids. We will then have a graveside funeral at Garland Cemetery in Stigler, OK, on May 18, 2025, at 11am. Please no flowers or gifts, in lieu we would love stories about our father sent to jstancampiano@hotmail.com.