William Charles Stumpf

William C. Stumpf/Aug. 21, 1934-July 5, 2024

William C. Stumpf, a self-made man who was the son of a self-made man, died July 5, 2024, at age 89 of heart ailments after a lifetime of family devotion, entrepreneurship and hard physical work.

Founder and owner of Stumpf Moving & Storage Co. of Penn Hills, Bill was born at home in Wilkinsburg on Aug. 21, 1934, to Bernard H. and Myrtle Stumpf. He arrived to see the end of the horse-drawn delivery wagon and lived to see the dawn of artificial intelligence. Between, his life reflected the values and lifestyle of his generation.

By age 10, he was assisting his father in his business, Wilkinsburg Coal & Ice Co. For a silver dollar given to him by his father, Bill, would shovel coal into the cellars of his father’s customers after school.

Bill continued working after school in the moving business, B.H. Stumpf Moving Co., after his father transitioned his business to moving when coal-fired furnaces and ice-block-cooled refrigerators fell out of use.

When his father died in 1948, Bill continued his schooling, graduating from Wilkinsburg High School in 1952, all the while helping at the family business, which supported him, his older brothers and his widowed mother.

At age 15, he met his future wife, Shirley A. Schauer, who lived near his home, on her walks to  Wilkinsburg High. He joined her and they became inseparable. They married in 1956 and were together for 40 years, until her death in 1996. He credited her as the greatest influence in his life.

They raised five children: William D. of Munhall; Margaret E. Shrum (Rick) of Mt. Lebanon; Catherine A. Loutsenhizer (Jeff) of Murrysville; Jonathan C. (Elizabeth) of Penn Township; and Brenda R. Dreesbach (Carsten), of Alexandria, Va. All survive him.

Bill applied his considerable self-taught carpentry skills to provide housing for his family. After marrying, he purchased a house in Wilkinsburg with cash he had saved from work. It had been converted to apartments. Bill returned it to single-family use, completing not only an entire interior remodel but replacing the wood foundation with stone after putting the house on jacks. He labored as his week allowed: Six days a week, generally eight hours a day, on a moving van, then keeping company books and caring for his widowed mother.

He also served for many years as an usher at St. James Roman Catholic Church, Wilkinsburg, and with the borough’s Jaycees as president in the early 1960s. He was a certified moving consultant and a member of Pennsylvania Moving & Storage Associates and Tristate Household Goods Tariff Conference.

In 1972 while doing a moving estimate, he found a house in Edgewood that was being sold by an estate. He and Shirley decided to move their family there to enroll in the Edgewood school system. He remodeled this house from the ground up and the family lived there for 16 years until moving to Wilkins Township in 1988.

In 1976, following his mother’s death in 1974, he also made a momentous and risky decision to start his own moving company, Stumpf Moving & Storage, drawing on his decades of business experience. He began work that fall and succeeded through the harrowing winter of 1976-77, applying his financial acumen to persevere when snowstorms shut his trucks down. His family never missed a meal.

Shirley worked by his side running the business office. She continued her loyal support when he relocated the company from Wilkinsburg to Homestead, and eventually to Penn Hills, where it still operates.

Over the years, his customers included Pittsburghers of little means, and Pittsburghers with celebrity and great wealth. He moved families from modest homes and he relocated mansions.

He treated his customers with warmth, consideration and discretion, understanding that personal items were priceless to them, no matter their material worth. For these reasons, repeat and word-of-mouth customers were common.

He was an avid sports fan and attended many of his children’s basketball and football games. He held Steelers season tickets for decades and enjoyed summer afternoons at PNC Park watching the Pirates. He rooted for Pitt football and basketball and enjoyed golfing.

Bill had never been in the hospital until November. But during his rapidly progressing recent illness, he demonstrated until the end his personality of good humor and stoicism, rarely complaining no matter what the trials he endured. Per his request, he died at home, surrounded by family.

The loss of Shirley struck Bill hard and he found renewal with Mary Lou Flavin, a widow. They married in 1998 and were together until her death in 2020. Surviving stepchildren are Erin (Mike) Klems of Lower Burrell; Christopher (Emily) Flavin of Carnegie; Kevin (Maureen) Flavin of Grosse Isle, Mich.; and Sheila of Tucson, Ariz. Bill was predeceased by two brothers, Bernard and Edward, and a stepson, Sean Michael Flavin.

Besides his children, he is survived by 11 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, six step-grandchildren and two great-step-grandchildren.

There will be no visitation. Following a Mass of Christian burial at St. John Fisher-St. Joseph the Worker Parish, Churchill, 10 am, August 31, 2024, interment will be in Mt. Carmel Cemetery, Penn Hills.

The family wishes to thank the staff at Bridges Hospice, Monroeville, for their compassionate care. Memorial contributions can be made to a charity of choice.

Arrangements made by the Findlay C. Wylie Funeral Home, Inc.

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