- Date Of Birth: September 23, 1960
- Date Of Death: December 26, 2021
- State: Indiana
William Dean (Bill) Tschiegg, 61, Brookston, went home to be with his Lord and Savior on Sunday, December 26, 2021, after a short struggle with COVID pneumonia.
He was born in Orrville, Ohio on September 23, 1960, the son of Robert E. Tschiegg and Mary Jean (Weeman) Tschiegg. Was married to Arlene Otto on April 18, 1998. She preceded him in death in 2012. He then married Myra McCammon Leap on September 2, 2017. She survives.
Bill graduated from Orrville High School in 1979 and continued his studies for ministry at Eastern Mennonite Bible College then continued his training with Moody Bible Institute in Chicago where he graduated his pastoral degree. During this time Bill played trumpet and sang with the Moody Men’s Choir.
Bill’s journey of faith and trust in Jesus Christ began at a very early age. He was raised in a devout Christian home with parents who were true believers in Jesus. He knew that it was an individual decision to come to Christ, to acknowledge and confess personal sin, repent from those sins, place his absolute trust and faith in Jesus, and accept God’s gift of Jesus as his personal savior, Who paid dearly for the sin of mankind. Bill understood the only way to eternal life with the Father was through that narrow gate, Jesus Christ, Yeshua Messiah.
Bill grew up at Salem Mennonite Church, Dalton, Ohio, where he served as interim pastor from December 1987 – September of 1988. He played accordian with the Swiss Echoes of the Wayne Country area. He then moved to North Carolina where he was lead counselor at Cameron Boys Camp in North Carolina from 1988 to 1993. It was there he learned brick masonry and met and married his first wife Arlene and moved to her home in Indiana. It was at this time that Bill learned the art of tuning pianos from Steve Jones who took Bill under his wing and taught him the craft. He drove and worked for an Amish framing company hired by an Indianapolis building company. From 2012-2018 Bill worked for Girtz Industries in Monticello Indiana, in quality control. Bill could do anything — painting, carpentry, masonry work. He was a man of many talents. He was our go-to brother for how to do anything.
All of Bill’s life he was very involved with church life and activities of the church from development of youth programs, bibles studies and became heavily involved with the Brethren Church Conference. In his later years he worked with small churches to help build community. Bill enjoyed playing cornet, accordian, piano, and singing and playing hymns and beautiful contemporary songs on the piano. From 1999 until the time of his passing, he was very active in the Brethren Way of Christ and the Lafayette Great Banquet spiritual renewal weekends where he was primarily involved in leading music for the weekends, both vocal and piano. His pastimes were tuning and repairing old pianos, turning old pianos into a piece of art, and most recently followed his father’s art of making music box bells. Bill also enjoyed studying scripture and learning new things, gardening and landscaping and most recently studying Hebrew with his wife Myra.
Surviving are his wife of four years Myra Tschiegg, his mother Mary Jean Tschiegg, brother John Tschiegg, sister-in-law Peg Tschiegg, and sister Kathryn M. Tschiegg, of Orrville, Ohio and many nieces, nephews, brothers- and sisters-in-law. He was preceded in death by his first wife Arlene Otto and his father Robert E. Tschiegg.
