Obituary of William E. Metzel

William E. "Bill" Metzel, 70, of Lemont, died Tuesday, December 22, 2020, at the Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, PA, from complications of pneumonia.

Bill was born on September 2, 1950, in York, the son of the late John W. Jr. and Madelyn (Trout) Metzel. On April 27, 1974, he married Deborah "Deb" Anderson, who survives at home.

Also surviving are two children, Abigail J. Metzel of Lemont and Nathan W. Metzel and his wife, Erica, of State College; and two grandchildren, Tyler and Jacob Metzel. Bill is also survived by his sister, Elizabeth "Beth" Grove and her husband, Franklin R., Jr. of York and several nieces and a nephew.

Bill was a 1968 graduate of William Penn High School, York. Bill received an Associate degree in Forest Technology from Paul Smith's College, Paul Smith's, NY, in 1970. He also served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War from September 1970 until April 1972 where he was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. Following his military service, Bill attended Penn State University and received a B.Ph (Bachelor of Philosophy) degree in 1980 in Cultural History Education.

After graduating from Penn State, Bill was employed as a program director at Shaver's Creek Environmental Center in addition to teaching cultural history education courses in the Recreation and Parks department. In 1986, Bill started his own company and became known as the Itinerant Gizmologist. His specialty was sharing his love of history by traveling to schools, fairs and festivals, historic sites, state parks and other venues to present programs on how children learned life skills through play and how children and families today could make these traditional toys, whistles and musical instruments at home. Bill was also a "master collier" and traveled to numerous locations to demonstrate how charcoal was made for the iron industry. He was also a professional storyteller and for many years performed annually at "Dark in the Park", a Halloween storytelling event sponsored by the Centre Region Parks and Recreation department and at Kids Day during the Central PA Festival of the Arts. He was passionate about sharing his knowledge with others through educational programs and storytelling and it was his goal that if one person, especially a child, learned something new from their interaction with him then it was a very good day.

He was a member of the Friends of the Blacksmith Shop in Boalsburg, the Tussey Mountain Tale Spinners and was a volunteer at Greenwood Furnace State Park where he provided programs on heritage play and assisted with their annual charcoal burn for many years.

A Celebration of Bill's life will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to either the Friends of the Blacksmith Shop, in care of the Boalsburg Heritage Museum, PO Box 346, Boalsburg, PA 16827, make sure to include "Friends of the Blacksmith Shop" on the memo line or to Friends of Greenwood Furnace, 15795 Greenwood Rd., Huntingdon, PA 16652.

Arrangements are under the care of Koch Funeral Home, State College. Online condolences and signing of the guest book may be entered at www.kochfuneralhome.com.