William (Bill) Engel

1924 - 2020
William (Bill) Engel was born October 22, 1924 in Herxheim, Germany to Margaret and Paul Engel. The family emigrated to New York City in 1939. Bill served in the U.S. Army, heavy artillery division in WWII, fighting in North Africa and Europe, helping to liberate France as well as the Dachau concentration camp in Bavaria, where his own father had been held briefly years earlier, before the family was able to leave Germany.

After the war, Bill returned to New York City and attended trade school, where he learned to be a tool and die maker, his vocation until he retired. He married Ruth Malinofsky in 1954. They enjoyed traveling the world together and were dedicated to one another until her death in 2001.

Bill was later introduced by mutual friends to Esther Bauer, a holocaust survivor who brought Bill along to her speaking engagements across the U.S. and Europe, where she shared her wartime experiences being interned in multiple concentration camps. During their time together, Esther was awarded the Verdienstkreuz (Order of Merit) by the German government for her Holocaust education achievements, and Bill was made a Chevalier by the French Légion d'honneur for his role in France's liberation. They moved into a senior living center in Yonkers, where they lived together until Esther passed away in 2016 and Bill continued residing until his death.

Bill took up public speaking to carry on Esther's work and got enthusiastic receptions at schools in several U.S. states and Germany. His last public appearance was before an audience of 400 at Rutgers University in March 2020, just prior to the pandemic shutdown.

Bill was dedicated to volunteer work, including with the Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps and the New York Police Department. He estimated his lifetime volunteer service totaled over 20,000 hours.

Bill was an avid stamp collector for many decades, and his letters to family members always included a reminder to return the canceled stamp. Though he was politically moderate, his final letters to family included a stamp with the U.S. flag affixed upside-down, with a note stating how this expressed his view on the current state of our country. Another of Bill's hobbies in his later years was a daily feeding of ducks, geese, and fish at a pond on the campus of College of Mount Saint Vincent, adjacent to his retirement community. He diligently collected bread scraps from his residence's dining hall each day for his animal friends.

Bill is survived by his sisters-in-law Phyllis Applebaum and Karen Engel, his nieces Mitzi Richardson and Genevieve Payne, his nephew Richard Engel and Richard's wife Basilia López. Bill's younger brother, Herbert, predeceased him. Very late in life, Bill enjoyed the companionship of Maria (Ria) Sprie, who also survives him.

Bill's family is grateful to Larry Bauer and Dianne Doctor, who showed great dedication and affection to Bill in his later years. Donations in Bill Engel's memory can be made to Forest Hills Volunteer Ambulance Corps, Inc. or The Bellevue Association.