Schaffer WilliamS

American businessman, owner of a bottled gas and welding distributorship. He began working in his fathers business in 1949, slowly building the business until he sold it 12/04/1988. Due to stress and overwork, Schaffer had a nervous breakdown in 1962. He built his own home in 1955 and made land purchases in 1967 and 1977. A type A person, he suffered with stress, high blood pressure and high cholesterol most of his life. A younger brother, (b.10/26/1929,) died at the age of five, 2/02/1935, and there was another brother born 11/25/1931. Schaffer joined the Merchant Marines for two years in 1947 before his work started with his dad. He married 7/01/1951. He had one daughter, 2/19/1953, followed by a son on 7/12/1955 and another son on 12/15/1956. In 1985 his speech and memory became difficult and by 1989, he was mainly housebound with Alzheimers and Parkinsons. A high fever in January 1991 hospitalized him and he lost much of his ability to communicate. February 1993 found him hospitalized again with a high fever, near death, and a tube had to be placed in his stomach. Suffering with pneumonia and high fevers, Schaffer was hospitalized March 1994, taken off food and water, 5/06/1994 and he died 5/20/1994, 8:54 AM, at his home in New Windsor, NY, at the age of 66. Read less