Steve was born to J.D. and Geraldine Vandiver in Stanton, Texas on March 25, 1952. He died on October 12, 2021 in Fayetteville, Arkansas.  He was raised by Christian parents with love and was baptized at age ten. His parents afforded him all the education he could stand. Steve married Donna Vandiver née McMillan of Mobile, Alabama in 1982.

Steve was a graduate of Canadian High School, United Electronics Institute, and West Texas A&M University where he earned Bachelor and Master of Science degrees. He subsequently graduated from the FBI Academy, a specialized U.S. Intelligence Community training facility, and earned a US Department of Justice management certificate from the University of Southern California. He was admitted into a doctoral program at the University of Southern California.

During the Cold War, Steve specialized in Soviet matters and led a national multi-organizational foreign counterintelligence effort. On behalf of the National Foreign Intelligence Committee, he received a National Intelligence Meritorious Citation from the Director, Central Intelligence Agency. The citation described his work as the most significant penetration ever attempted against a major hostile foreign power.

Steve served as a Supervisory Special Agent of the FBI at organization headquarters in Washington, DC, lectured at the FBI Academy in Quantico and at other US Intelligence Community schools. He was an international program manager at the FBI Engineering Research Facility. His work took him over much of the world. Steve received special recognition from the CIA, FBI, US Capitol Police, US Marshals Service, US Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Texas Rangers, from an Acting Attorney General in recognition of assistance provided to the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, from the Executive Office of United States Attorneys, as well as other organizations and individuals.

Steve chaired the US Intelligence Community's Capitol Hill Advisory Group that provided specialized assistance to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He was the FBI representative to the National Intelligence Community Countermeasures Subcommittee and to the US Open Skies Treaty Organization involved with the verifiable destruction of Soviet anti-ballistic missiles. Steve served as the FBI representative to the Joint Services Program Office involved with specialized aspects of US Embassy security. He created the Special Search Techniques Program that employed national effort capabilities to detect clandestinely concealed items of interest whether emplaced by individuals or nation-state actors. He was involved in the investigation of numerous national interest cases including serial child abductions, serial homicides, and internationally investigated various narcotics trafficking organizations, an assassination of foreign judges, and the foreign assassination of a Catholic archbishop.

Upon retiring from federal service, Steve was an elected Constitutional County Judge in Texas and was a fellow of both the Texas Judicial Academy and the Texas College of Probate Judges. He served on the board of the West Texas Region, Public Defender for Capital Murder Defense Organization and was a member of the 31 ^st District Juvenile Probation Department. He chaired the telecommunications subcommittee of the West Texas Regional Planning Committee.

Steve was a delegate to the Texas Republican Caucus several times and served on an Executive Committee of the Boy Scouts of America. He was an instrument rated commercial pilot with high performance and complex airplane certification, SCUBA diver, extra class amateur radio operator, African big game hunter, West Texas rancher, and an oil and natural gas producer. He seldom suffered fools.

He was a Christian for 60 years and had served as a deacon of the First Baptist Church of Jasper, Arkansas.

Steve is survived by his wife Donna; sons, Christopher Vandiver and wife Nicole of Mobile, Jason David Vandiver and wife Jennifer of Dallas; by his dutiful, beautiful daughter Lorelei Natasha Bourla, MD and husband Michael Bourla MD; maternal uncle Dee Catlin and wife Sue; maternal aunt Janie Catlin; mother-in-law Shirley McMillan; and numerous cousins. Fully expecting to perish in some overseas hellhole, instead he died in peace on October 12, 2021 at the Willard Walker Hospice Home in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Fully expecting to perish in some overseas hellhole, instead he died in peace at Fayetteville, Arkansas.  He will be interred at Spring Grove Cemetery located in Anthony, Kansas.

Fully expecting to perish in some overseas hellhole, instead he died in peace at Fayetteville, Arkansas.  He will be interred at Spring Grove Cemetery located in Anthony, Kansas.

Services to be held at First Baptist Church of Jasper , Arkansas, on Monday October 18, 2021.  Memorial contributions may be made to Ozark Humane Society Shelter 5147 Rock Springs Road, Harrison, AR 72601, or Washington Regional Foundation , (please select donation to be directed to Willard Walker Hospice Home), 325 E Longview Street, Fayetteville, AR 72703.