William C. Freitag

1938 - 2024

News Story
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer

William C. Freitag, a speech pathologist who closed his 34-year Sylvania schools career with myriad duties as director of student and community services, died Feb. 9 in Ohio Living Swan Creek. He was 85.

He died in his sleep, and the cause is not yet known, his daughter Karen Francis said. He most recently was a memory care resident, but was not in ill health, she said. He and his wife, Gayle, moved to Swan Creek from their longtime Maumee home more than a year ago.

Mr. Freitag retired from the Sylvania district in 1998, the last six years overseeing special education, but also drug and alcohol prevention programs and as hearing officer for expulsion hearings. The previous eight years he was assistant director of special education.

"I learned everything I know about special education from him. I have a degree and all, but he was a mentor to me," said Kevin Gorman, his assistant director in student and community services, who later became Northview High School principal and director of pupil services for the Perrysburg schools.

"He worked very hard. The biggest thing was he had a sense of humor and was flexible and was not afraid to try a new idea - and they usually worked, and they were successful for kids," said Mr. Gorman, retired director of student services in the Upper Arlington, Ohio, schools who works part time with two central Ohio districts.

For instance, Mr. Freitag recognized students were best served remaining in their home schools for learning disability classes, instead of another location in the district. He also worked to make sure those serving students with autism had necessary training.

"He was on the forefront of that also," Mr. Gorman said. "He rolled with the flow. He taught me to laugh at the situation so you could make good decisions for kids. He was a real asset to the Sylvania schools, and he was a definite asset to me. He taught me the practicalities."

His humor extended from workplace to home life.

"He made people laugh and put them at ease," Mrs. Francis said. "All of us got our sense of humor, our wit, from my dad. If we're laughing, we think of him. That's what's going to get us through the hard times."

Mr. Freitag started in the district by working with students who had speech differences or hearing concerns, often in small groups, and with their families.

"He just had such compassion and a love of helping these children and their families," said Mrs. Francis, who credits his example with inspiring her teaching career. "He loved the Sylvania community and the schools.

"He loved learning solutions - what can I learn different and new to help people?" she said.

Teachers found him approachable, and he had a way with children, said Betty Pakosz, who student taught with him in 1970 and was a Sylvania schools speech pathologist form 1972-2006.

"He met them where they were," she said. "When you worked with him, you felt you were working with him, not for him. He would be as creative as he could to get what a kid needed."

In the early 1970s, Mr. Freitag wrote a grant proposal to start early education programming for preschoolers showing signs of language learning delays. The result was a grant to the Sylvania schools to develop such a program, among the first in the state, said Beth Jacobs, who taught in that program. Other districts followed suit.

"He was kind," she said. "He saw an opportunity to intervene for children. He was focused on what was good for the kids, and he worked in the trenches and came up through the ranks."

He'd been a volunteer and officer with the Northwest Ohio Speech and Hearing Association. He also had been an editor for a statewide journal of hearing and speech.

He was born Nov. 21, 1938, in Chicago to Ruth and Ralph Freitag. He was a 1958 graduate of Chicago's Fenger High School, where he lettered in swimming and diving. He received a bachelor of science degree in 1962 from Valparaiso University in Indiana. He later received a master's degree from Bowling Green State University and pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Toledo.

In retirement, he volunteered to patrol the trails at Swan Creek Preserve Metropark and to deliver flowers to patients at St. Luke's Hospital.

"He loved talking, and he loved people, and he loved stories," Mrs. Francis said.

He enjoyed family travels, trips to Door County, Wisconsin, where he'd spent childhood vacations, and golf outings to Florida with his poker buddies, she said.

Surviving are his wife, the former Gayle Stock, whom he married Aug. 10, 1963; daughters Karen Francis and Kristy Snyder; son, Chad Freitag, two granddaughters.

Visitation will be from 3-7 p.m. Friday at at Coyle Funeral Home. Funeral services will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday at Trinity Lutheran Church, where he was a member.

The family suggests tributes to Trinity Lutheran Church or Swan Creek Preserve Metropark.