William "Bill" K. Sheaffer, 78, of Ephrata, passed away on Thursday, January 12, 2023, at Hospice and Community Care, Mount Joy.
Bill Sheaffer-William Keller Sheaffer-was a true-blue optimist and family man. He sought out the good in others and showed up, stood up, in big ways and small, for the people in his life.
Bill was first of all a father to Matt and Chris, and husband to Lynne. He was grandfather to Michael and Alex and Brieana and Landon and Jaden and to Brennen and Brennen’s wife Hunter. Son to Dorothy and William, brother to Joanne and David and Steve, and beloved father-in-law to Stephanie and Lisa. Bill believed in family, believed in the goodness of others, believed in God. He was a longtime member of Our Mother of Perpetual Help Church in Ephrata and a member of the Knights of Columbus, Father Daley Council 4191.
Bill was a lifelong Democrat and member of the Democratic State Committee. He was a good neighbor, a coach, a volunteer, a helper, a person other people depended on for his kindness, his decency, his good humor, his easy, loving, generous spirit. He was for thirty-five years a rural mail carrier, coming to know and to be counted on by the people in Ephrata’s RD2 through three generations.
Bill was a proud graduate of Garden Spot High School in 1962 and, even prouder, of Pennsylvania State University in 1966, where he was an ROTC officer before going on to a commission in the U.S. Air Force, serving at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, Texas. Penn State’s Nittany Lions were first among the many teams he cheered on, just ahead of the Oakland A’s, the Gonzaga Bulldogs, and Lancaster Catholic’s boys’ and girls’ basketball squads. He coached boys’ basketball at OMPH for sixteen years and was a devoted fan and supporter wherever his sons or grandkids were involved in sports.
Bill’s love of life extended to a love of travel, of golf, of cruising with dear friends, of beaches with family, of movies, and especially of classic rock music. He was a dancer, a good one, having met Lynne at a dance one summer night in the wake of the British Invasion and having married her four summers later. They stayed married a lifetime, 54 years, so the dancing continued, and nowhere better than at reunions of Lynne’s Ephrata High class of 1965.
The joy Bill Sheaffer knew as a dancer was the joy he knew in life-with his wife and sons and grandchildren, with his many friends, with the young people he mentored, with the causes he believed in and fought for. In that spirit, and in memory of Bill, we might all dance just a little more. And in lieu of flowers we are asked to donate to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research at give.michaeljfox.org/donate.
A visitation will be held on Saturday, January 21, 2023, from 10 to 11 AM at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, 320 Church Avenue, Ephrata, followed by a Memorial Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00 AM with Fr. Kevin Moley, C.Ss.R. officiating. Final Commendation and Farewell will take place in the Cedar Hill Cemetery.
Arrangements by Stradling Funeral Homes, Inc., Akron/Ephrata.