Walter Stoiber

AUSTINTOWN - Walter J. Stoiber, 97, died June 12 of natural causes following a long and remarkable life that began on May 19, 1917, in the bedroom of a home on 16th Street in Altoona, Pennsylvania. Mr. Stoiber delighted in the story of his birth: When the big day came, his mother's regular doctor was indisposed so he sent a young - very young - stand-in to assist with the birth. "This is my first baby," the mother-to-be announced when the doctor arrived. To which he replied, "That makes us even, ma'am. It's my first baby too."

Mr. Stoiber, known as "Big Walt" to those who loved him, lived through the Great Depression, working as an usher in a movie house to help his family scrape by; served with distinction during World War II and the Korean War; and, with his first wife, Inez Courtney Stoiber, raised seven children on a salesman's salary and a do-it-yourselfer's flair.

He was a storyteller extraordinaire, entertaining his children on Sunday nights with tales of Dangerous Dan McGrew that came straight from his imagination. He could walk on stilts well into middle age; inspired a love of the game in two generations of golfers; and was famous for his pie-baking skills - he took special pride in his crust - and musical ability. The son of an orchestra leader who gave piano lessons in the family home, Mr. Stoiber took to brass and played first-chair trombone as a senior at Altoona High School. He later learned the harmonica and serenaded his elder daughter at her 60th birthday party (he was 87).

Born as World War I raged, Mr. Stoiber was a patriot and when he reminisced about his military service he would say, "I wouldn't want to do it again, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world." Mr. Stoiber served with the 100th Infantry Division in France and Germany during World War II and was bivouacked in the Black Forest when a great big ambulance driver with the nickname Tiny rode over to his encampment with news from home. "You're a father! It's a girl! Mother and baby are doing just fine."

During the Korean War, Mr. Stoiber was an instructor at the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. He left active military duty as a captain, with a Purple Heart for injuries sustained during World War II combat. He later joined the Air Force Reserve and was awarded the rank of major.

Mr. Stoiber's stories of growing up in Western Pennsylvania made it sound like the most colorful place on earth. His father, John, was a German immigrant who met his mother, Lillian Rose Maier, when he took a room at her family's boarding house. Mr. Stoiber, his parents, and his beloved sister, Charlotte, lived in a small house heated by a coal stove. During Prohibition, his parents and uncles made home brew in the basement and when they heard pop they knew a beer bottle had blown its top. As a boy, Mr. Stoiber was known around the neighborhood as Derb for his taste in hats. His best pals had nicknames too: Beans Kraft and Cakes Rice.

And did they have fun! They'd sneak into the outhouse to get high on corn silk and sail down the hills of their hometown on skis made of barrel staves. In those days, radio was the entertainment and young Walter built a crystal set, which allowed the family and neighbors to tune in to KDKA-Pittsburgh.

Early on summer mornings, Mr. Stoiber and his sister would head off with sack lunches to the Brush Mountains near their home to pick berries. Their boots would reek, having been rubbed with onions by their mother to keep the snakes away.

Times were tough for the family during the Depression and grew worse after the death of Mr. Stoiber's father. When the bottoms of Mr. Stoiber's shoes got so worn there were holes in them, his mother lined the insoles with cardboard separators from the Shredded Wheat box. As soon he got out of high school, Mr. Stoiber went to work for the Penn Central Light and Power Company, "earning the fantastic sum of $30 a week." One of the first things he did was to buy his mother an electric refrigerator to replace the old icebox.

Mr. Stoiber married Inez Courtney on August 22, 1943, while home on leave, a dashing groom in uniform and his beautiful bride. Military service took him to Maryland, Georgia, North Carolina, New York, and then overseas. After the war, he moved his growing family to Erie, Pennsylvania, where he had landed a job with the Kellogg Sales Company and, later, C.A. Curtze Wholesale Groceries. He found his calling as a salesman for the Prudential Insurance Company in Youngstown, Ohio, where the family settled and where Mr. Stoiber lived until his death. He was with Prudential for 25 years, retiring in 1979 with numerous awards and a repertoire of stories about the characters he'd met on his sales calls.

Mr. Stoiber was the kind of dad who would come home after a long day of work, throw on a T-shirt and old khakis and play catch in the yard with one of the boys or jacks on the front porch with his younger daughter. He transformed beat-up bikes into shiny speedsters and turned the attic of his young family's home into a combination dorm and club house for his five sons, with built-in bookshelves to divide the room. He loved Big Band Music and on rare nights out, he took his wife to company dinner dances. More often, they stayed home and played bridge.

He could be stern, and a disciplinarian, but he had a tender side and it was never more evident than when his wife was diagnosed with cancer in her late 40s. He would visit her every night when she was hospitalized, staying well past visiting hours until the nurses ushered him out. As she got sicker, he cared for her at home while assuming the family and household duties. She died on December 6, 1967, and that was one of the lowest moments of his life. Raw with grief, consumed with responsibilities, he carried on.

Charming and handsome, he was, within a few years, ready to date. Leisure suits were in. He bought one in yellow, and a silk screen dress shirt to go with it. Before long, he was keeping steady company with Dorothy Miller Cerretta, a young widow with a son. She was fun-loving, a good dancer, and a quick study at golf. They married in January 1972 and bought a large house on Fairview Avenue in Canfield for their combined family.

After his retirement, Mr. Stoiber and his wife moved to Fox Run in Boardman, not far from Mill Creek Golf Couse, where they often played. Many winters, they would converge on Myrtle Beach with a group of friends for a month of golf and relaxation. They were longtime members of Sebring Country Club.

In October, with their health declining, the Stoibers moved from the condo they loved to Briarfield Manor, an Austintown assisted living community. Mr. Stoiber was alert, engaged, and even a little irreverent until the end and enjoyed regular calls and visits from his far-flung brood. In virtually every conversation, Mr. Stoiber would remark on how proud he was of his family - children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren - and how he didn't know how he'd gotten so lucky. His family feels the same way.

Mr. Stoiber is survived by a large and boisterous family: his wife, Dorothy; his children, Carole Napolitano and Denny, Gary, Doug, Jeff, Julie, and Randy Stoiber, and his stepson, Tom Cerretta; his grandchildren, Elyse, Jocelyn, Dante, Nick, Emily, Andrew, Lily, Cole, Marcus, Julia, Luke, Rachel, Phoebe, Ava, and Lindsay; his great-grandchildren, Ellory, Soren, Piers, Graham, Tessa, Enzo, Oliver, Faye, and Audrey; his children's spouses, Stephen Napolitano, Jeannette Stoiber, Carole Stoiber, Maggie Hudak, Doug Hostvedt, and Lisa Stoiber; the spouses of his grandchildren, Jeremy, Tim, Chris, Kyle, Andy, and Alyssa; and many nieces and nephews..

Mr. Stoiber's family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in his name to the Mill Creek Park Foundation, www.millcreekmetroparks.org or P.O. Box 596, Canfield, Ohio, 44406.

Friends may call from 2 to 5 p.m. on Sunday at the Higgins-Reardon Funeral Home, 3701 Starr's Centre Drive, Canfield, Ohio 44406. There will be a gathering for prayers at the funeral home at 9:15 a.m. on Monday. Mass of Christian Burial will be at 10 a.m. Monday at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Boardman, where Mr. Stoiber was a member. The church is at 7325 Westview Drive, Youngstown. Interment will be at Calvary Cemetery, 248 Belle Vista Avenue, Youngstown.