William Maxwell Immergluck

William "Bill" Immergluck passed away peacefully on the evening of January 10, 2025, surrounded by loved ones. Bill was born in LA in 1931, and the family moved to Detroit soon thereafter. His father worked two jobs and died at 36, when Bill was only 11. His mom went to work at a factory during World War II, and he was sent to live with his grandparents a hundred miles away. He returned to Detroit after the war and lived in a trailer park on the east side with his mom. Some of his fondest memories seemed to be of his paper route, his digging up and selling night crawlers to anglers with the help of his stepdad, and hanging out with neighborhood friends, swimming, fishing, ice skating, and playing tennis, volleyball, and hockey.

Bill's jobs included working as a clerk for Chrysler, a carpenter, and a construction scheduler/coordinator for Ford, among other things, and he served in the Naval Reserve at its air base in Grosse Isle. Later, he worked for a civil engineering firm as a jack-of-all-trades, for a CETA job-training program, and for the City of Detroit as a building inspector, and was an officer in his union local when he worked for the City.

Bill met Katherine Simmonds, later Katherine Immergluck,when managing a women's softball team at Chrysler and needed to borrow a first-basewoman's glove, and she was the first basewoman on another team. Life together for over 70 years followed, including six kids, a dozen grandchildren, and a dozen great-grandchildren. They moved the family from the suburbs into Detroit in 1968, at a time when most white families were moving in the other direction.

One anecdote: In the late 1960s, Bill was on the Warren-Centerline Human Relations Council, part of his and Katherine'swork around open housing and other social justice issues. In this role, he was once in the house of a mixed-race couple who had just moved into an all-white suburban Warren neighborhood when an angry mob was threatening them. Bill was able to contact a friend who was able to get the state police to show up; the local police were not helpful.

Bill's children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren will all miss him tremendously. He is survived by his daughters Claire (Bernard) Rice, Mary Siden, Pat (Robert) Douglass, Ellen Koehler, and Dan (Lilly) Immergluck; his grandchildren Evan (Amber) Rice, Joel Rice, Alex (Sabrina Grondhuis) Rice, Ruth (Raphael) Raffoul, Rebecca Siden, Seth (Theresa) Koehler, Bree (Nathan) Brouwer, Samuel (Shana Reid) Koehler, Noah (Rachel) Koehler, Ben (Harley) Koehler, Katherine Immergluck, and Anna Immergluck; and great grandchildren Austin Rice, Ian Rice, Maya Raffoul, Jacob Raffoul, Chelsea Koehler, Clara Koehler, Paul Koehler, Lucia Brouwer, Maxwell Brouwer, Mae Brouwer, Westley Koehler, River Koehler, Cassandra Reid and Christopher Reid.

Bill was preceded in death by his wife Katherine Immergluck, his daughter Jean Bis and his sons-in-law Paul Koehler and Glen Bis.

At the family's request and in honor of Bill's great love for dogs, memorial donations may be directed to Paws With a Cause. Paws serves individuals and communities by placing assistance and facility dogs nationwide.