Obituary of William Francis Wilder

William Francis Wilder, DoDDs Computer coordinator and Teacher, Adjunct Professor of Biology at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, devout catholic, loving father and husband, has died at 81.

Dad grew up in Northeast Philly, on Sylvester Street in St Martin of Tours Parish. He didn’t have much growing up but he made up for it in hard work and an unbeatable resilience. He worked as a shoe salesman to put himself through school at Villanova and after earning his degree in biology and chemistry, he went into the Peace Corps in 1962 where he taught math and science in the Philippines for a number of years. His time in the Peace Corps directed the course of the rest of his life, as from there he started to grow his family of 4 daughters and 4 sons as well as a long career working as both a computer coordinator and an AP Science and Math teacher for DoDDEA. 

Dad was a man of many talents. He was incredibly smart and able to figure out just about anything he wanted to. He loved to swim, play basketball, sing karaoke, bake bread, camp, and was even a talented woodworker. In his spare time, he coached highschool basketball, built computers and robots (the old kind that took up entire rooms), and built our family's cabin in Montana. 

He was a teacher for 47 years and was awarded the title of teacher of the year in 2006 as well as many local awards from his students and his fellow teachers. He was loved by almost all of his students (a great achievement for teachers), and inspired many of them to pursue careers in STEM. Many of them would reach out years later to let him know just how much of a positive influence he had on their lives. As a teacher he was strict, but understanding. He never used busy work to fill his class time because the whole period would be filled with discussion, experimentation, and the occasional sharing of dad jokes with his students. He took great interest in how his students were doing beyond just their grade and would always help where he could when his students were struggling in or out of class. He would push his students to strive for their best, providing opportunities to showcase their work and talent through national symposiums, science fairs, and even through basketball which he coached at a few of his schools. He has truly left his mark in the many minds he helped to grow and nourish, but as a teacher he will be missed

Dad served the church with all of his heart and soul for his entire life. From a young age, he served at his home parish of St Martin of Tours as an altar server and choir boy, and continued through his life to serve the church as a 4th degree member of the Knights of Columbus, sunday school teacher, and adjunct professor of biology at St Charles Borromeo Seminary, wanting to do all he can for the future priests of the Archdiocese. He was faithful to Sunday mass and attended daily mass as often as he could, raising his children as best he could to love the faith as he did. His prayer life was always a core to his daily routine, starting each day in the early morning reading The Lives of the Saints and praying St Ignatius of Loyola's prayer of offering, the Suscipe, every day, praying the family rosary daily, and ending the day each night with prayers to Mary that he taught his children to pray as well. Beyond that, he lived his faith volunteering at St Jude’s conference in Great Falls, Montana, delivering food to families in need. 

 Richie: “I suppose we all have special moments with dad, all different, but underlying all of them is dad’s ease with making each blessed in our memories. For me, it was his humor. Dad is the funniest person I have ever known, and we all get our humor from him.They say that laughter is the best medicine; from him, I have enough medicine to sustain me throughout my life and to hopefully pass on to his granddaughter, whose beautiful blue eyes come from him.”

 Though many people will remember Dad’s influence on their lives, he will be remembered the most through his wife, Elizabeth, and his 8 children, Bernadette, Susan, Nancy, Donna, Billy, Richie, Christopher, and Peter. As many parents will relate to, his parenting style changed with each kid, but something that never changed was how strongly he loved his family. He always did his absolute best to ensure his kids never had to worry. All he wanted for all of us was a life where we were happy and secure. Though sometimes this meant he was stricter at times, he was never cruel and he was always a voice of compassion and understanding. Though we tested his patience immensely, he was always one of the first people there to help pick up the pieces when it felt like the world was falling apart. Even though he was figuring life out just like the rest of us, he always knew the right words to say to help us understand the difficulties we were going through. As a Father he was irreplaceable.