Biography

Stephen is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), and currently holds an active license in the State of Texas. He is a 1995 graduated from Bryant College (now known as Bryant University) in Smithfield, Providence County, Rhode Island, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.

Stephen worked for Ernst & Young (EY) for close to 24 years, serving as a Senior Manager in the firms Assurance Services practice in Houston, Texas from 4 November 1996 to August 2014, and afterwards as an Executive Director in Vienna, Austria until 30 June 2020.  In July 2020, Stephen returned to the USA and currently resides in the State of Connecticut. While at EY, he provided accounting and auditing services to both public and privately held companies in the United States and around the world. He previously worked at Fidelity Investments in Covington, Kenton County, Kentucky.

Stephen is the former Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of The Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies of Virginia, Inc. (also known as Historic Germanna), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. He was Treasurer from November 2020 until December 2023. He served on Historic Germanna’s Board of Trustees from September 2013 until December 2023.

Stephen’s genealogy interest began in the late 1990s when he joined his grandfather,James Richard Luchs, Sr. on a visit to Ridgway, Elk County, Pennsylvania. Ridgway was where his grandfather was born and where his Luchs great grandparents immigrated from Gadmen, Canton Bern, Switzerland in 1888.

Stephen traces his Wingfield ancestry to Dorothy Wingfield and Adam Claypoole, Esq.  Dorothy was the daughter of Robert Wingfield, Esq. of Upton and Elizabeth Cecil (younger sister of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley KG PC, chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I, Lord High Treasurer of England and twice Secretary of State).