Dean Clair Niswander

Bluffton

Dean Clair Niswander, 81, died at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 5, 2010, at the Mennonite Memorial Home, Bluffton.

He was born Feb. 6, 1928, in Bluffton to Carey F. and Lulu Hilty Niswander, who preceded him in death. On Aug. 20, 1950, he married Joanne Vercler, who survives.

Mr. Niswander was a 1945 graduate of Bluffton High School and received his bachelor’s degree in business in 1949 from Bluffton College. He worked with his father at C.F. Niswander & Son International Harvester dealership, Bluffton, until it closed in 1961. He had been a claims adjuster for Nationwide Insurance and Denton Insurance Co., both in Lima. He went to work at ChemiTrol Chemical Co. in 1964, and moved his family to Okemos, Mich., where he was its Michigan sales manager. He was moved to the home office in Gibsonburg in 1976, where he retired in 1991 as vice president of sales. Following his retirement, he and his wife returned to Bluffton where they spent the next 10 years as volunteers in the development office at Bluffton College. Five of those years were spent traveling the United States and Canada as goodwill ambassadors for their alma mater. They spent two years planning and presenting displays for the school’s 100th anniversary, which was celebrated in 1999 to 2000. He and his wife were named Outstanding Alumni of Bluffton College in 1996 and received the Ray Ramseyer Philanthropic Award in 2002.

In 1945 he became an Eagle Scout with Troop 256 in Bluffton. He was a member of First Mennonite Church, Bluffton, where he served on several committees. He had been active with United Methodist churches in Okemos, Mich., and Gibsonburg. He was a member of the Lions Club, Bluffton, where he had been an officer and received the Melvin Jones Fellowship in 2007. He was a tenor and sang with several music groups throughout his life, including the Bluffton Choral Society, the Goldenaires, the Swiss Male Chorus, the Orpheus Male Chorus, the Steiner Chorale, the Toledo Symphony Chorus and the Ben Locke Chorale. In 1976, the Niswander family was named the American Amateur Music Family of the Year by the American Music Conference.

Survivors also include three sons, Rick (Debi) Niswander, of Greenville, N.C., Mark (Mike Phillips) Niswander, of Commerce City, Colo., and Tom (Nancy) Niswander, of Naperville, Ill.; three daughters, Jeanne (John) Manganaro, of Carlsbad, N.M., Lee (Richard Davis) Niswander, of Castle Rock, Colo., and Kay (Dan) Allan, of Thomaston, Maine; 10 grandchildren, Sara (Mark) Cowperthwaite, Jessie Allan, Jerry Allan, Holly Ames Allan, Alex Niswander, Greg Niswander, Graham Niswander, Rachel Niswander, Erika Niswander and Elliott Davis; and three great-grandchildren, Nathaniel, Virginia and Naomi Cowperthwaite.

He was preceded in death by three sisters, Elvira Suter, Martha Franklin and Marcella Warren; and an infant brother, Ivan.

Memorial services will begin at 3 p.m. Sunday at First Mennonite Church, Bluffton. The body has been donated to the Medical University of Ohio, Toledo. Burial of the cremains will be at a later date in Maple Grove Cemetery, Bluffton.

Friends may call from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. and following the service on Sunday at the church.

Memorial contributions may be made to Bluffton University, First Mennonite Church or the Northwest Ohio Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Arrangements are by Chiles-Laman Funeral Homes, Bluffton.