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William Alfonsi Obituary
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Memories and Condolences
for William Alfonsi
2 Entries
Dan Holler
May 10, 2025
I met Bill as a teenager. He was easy to talk to and cared so much about everyone. He was always trying to make sure I didn't set low expectations for myself. He encouraged me to make the most of my life.
The life he led was one of a kind and filled with so many life lessons. He believed in second chances and donated a lot of his time to helping others. When I moved away, I tried to keep in touch a couple times a year over the phone and visited him every few years. Over the last few years, he started opening up about his experiences during WWII and it just reminded me how unique his life was.
He just wanted to make the lives around him better. He had only seen my 3 daughters once or twice in person, but he always asked about them and started sending them care packages of books and toys.
Last time we spoke was sometime last fall. He said he was going to mail me something he had typed or written. I'd been pushing him for years to document his life story and his military service.... so I wondered if this was related to that. He said to expect it next week. I regret not calling him sooner to inquire. Now I know why I never got it. Sorry Bill. Please know you were one of the most positive influences in my life and through your stories I know you touched so many hearts.
--Dan
Julianne Shetler
April 24, 2025
Bill was probably the most interesting and unique person I have ever known. Truly, I have been blessed to have at least a few of his words of wisdom to pass on and I love repeating them because he always said what he had to say in such memorable humor. He showed me a book that one of the young people he had mentored had written and titled using one of those memorable phrases which I cannot repeat here! He enjoyed invention and was always working, always trying to make people understand that what they have is good but in this way or that way it could be better and so frustrating to me that he was not taken seriously by the young people in the industry he had spent so much time working at. Just want to say here to any young people who might open this book, take the time and listen to these old guys. His lifetime of experience is not different or obsolete because it was a different time, and there is so much to learn and to just ENJOY. Even at 101 years, it's gone too soon.
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