William R. "Bill" Shaffer

Obituary of William R. Shaffer

BILL SHAFFER January 27, 1942-January 21, 2026

William Randolph (Bill) Shaffer, 83, of Honeoye Falls, passed away on January 21st at Highland Hospital in Rochester, NY.

A private family-only service will be held at Mountain Rise United Church of Christ in Fairport, NY, on Sunday, February 1st, with the Reverend Dr. Kelly Sprinkle officiating. A Celebration of Life will be held later in April, also at Mountain Rise UCC, for all who loved him to attend. A private family-only burial will follow later at White Haven Memorial Park in Pittsford, NY. Arrangements are being handled by the Merton H Kays Funeral Home in Honeoye Falls. Please check back on this website for the Celebration of Life date.

Bill was born in Oswego, NY, the only child of Randolph Churchill Shaffer and Arlene Alice LeFever, on January 27, 1942. He attended the Campus School at SUNY Oswego before attending and graduating from Oswego High School in 1958. He then attended SUNY Oswego to pursue and obtain a BS in Education degree. Bill taught in California for two years before returning to NYS to teach at LeRoy Central Schools where he taught sixth grade. He retired in 1998 after teaching 36 years. He was an endearing and creative educator and taught with a great sense of humor to help his students enjoy and remember learning. Many students regard him as their favorite.

Bill enjoyed life. He enjoyed so many different activities, especially spending time and vacations with his three children, their spouses, and seven grandchildren, all of whom live nearby.

As a young boy, Bill enjoyed going to the Oswego Speedway with his dad to watch supermodified cars race, and always, they would each have a hot dog. As an adult, he continued to go to Oswego for the races but also traveled with friends to other racetracks. He went to the Daytona 500 once and the Indy 500 a number of times. He enjoyed following the winged sprinters and the World of Outlaws on dirt tracks.

Bill also enjoyed other sports. The NY Giants and the Dodgers were his favorite professional football and baseball teams. In Honeoye Falls, he coached his sons in Little League baseball, and he coached his daughter in softball. When his children were in high school, Bill enjoyed watching them play sports even though they didn't participate in his favorite ones. He rooted for them in soccer, volleyball, cross country running, cross country skiing, and track. After his children left high school, Bill loved going to local high school and college basketball games with friends, sometimes to two or three games a week. He continued to be a sports fan later in life, rooting for his grandchildren as they played soccer, softball, baseball, basketball, cheerleading, cross country running, cross country skiing, football, lacrosse, track, and ice hockey.

Another sport that became Bill's retirement hobby was bicycling. When the weather was bad, Bill would go to the JCC to a spinning class. In good weather, he rode from 10 to 30 miles almost every morning during the week, often stopping at a local restaurant for breakfast, usually getting a blueberry pancake. His goal was one day to ride his bike all the way from Honeoye Falls to Oswego, over one hundred miles in one day. He did it!

Bill also loved to travel and go camping. There were many family vacations at the ocean, at a lake, in the mountains, and across the country. After the children were out of school, he and his wife Sherry traveled by car across the country twice visiting many national parks. Together they traveled twice to Alaska by car and once came back through Canada and the Canadian Rockies on the Trans Canadian Highway. Another favorite Canadian vacation was to Nova Scotia. In 2016, the two went on a six-week trip in Europe traveling by car and trains to nine different countries there. They took a riverboat cruise down the Rhine before meeting up with their foreign exchange student Johannes in Kassel, Germany, who lived with them for a year during the 1997-1998 school year. For several years, Bill and his wife also traveled to Florida in late winter and spent a month in The Villages, another favorite spot where Bill enjoyed bicycling the many paths they have there. Bill's life was rich with many more travel and fun experiences.

Music was always very important for Bill. He played the clarinet in his high school band, but as an adult, he was more interested in listening to music and going to concerts, especially those his grandchildren performed in. Bill's favorite singers were Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, and other country singers. He enjoyed other types of music, too. Often, Bill would listen to music and bike to the beat. There was hardly a time when Bill was not listening to music.

For over 50 years, Bill was very active in Presbyterian churches by serving at times as deacon, elder, greeter, and usher. In 2013, Bill joined the Mountain Rise United Church of Christ in Fairport where he continued to be active.

The greatest joy for Bill in his later retirement years was having the children and all seven grandchildren together at the house for a Sunday dinner once a month. He loved making them laugh. His tradition on their birthday would be to call and sing "Happy Birthday" purposely out of tune.

Bill was a well-loved teacher. The LeRoy Class of '74 dedicated their high school yearbook to him. Even after he had a second stroke and ended up at St. John's Home in Rochester, students came to visit him there. Bill is survived by Sherry of Honeoye Falls, his wife of 55 years. He is also survived by his daughter Amy (Chris) Oldfield, David (Erynne) Shaffer, and Brian (Jennifer) Shaffer. He leaves seven grandchildren, Emily, Owen, and Sadie Oldfield, Anna and Leah Shaffer, Kelsey and Connor Shaffer, and five nieces and a nephew. He is preceded in death by his parents.

In lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations please be sent to Mountain Rise United Church of Christ, 2 Mountain Rise, Fairport, NY, 14450