William E. Muehleisen

William “Bill” Muehleisen passed away peacefully at the age of 80 on Friday, February 23, 2018 surrounded by family.

Bill was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on March 18, 1937, to the late Anna and Gus Muehleisen.  He developed a love of sports (football in particular) from his father at a young age. 

Bill graduated from Lancaster Catholic High School in 1955 before joining the United States Marine Corp.  He served his country for three years until he returned home to the Lancaster area to complete his education.  Bill graduated from Millersville University in 1964.

Bill began his 50-year football coaching career at Harrington High School, where he was also an Earth Science teacher.  He continued his career at Cape Henlopen High School from 1971-1975.  In 1980, Bill began coaching football at the University of Delaware under the late Head Coach, Tubby Raymond.  He coached the Fighting Blue Hens until 1987 when he suffered a heart attack that required he take a brief hiatus from coaching. 

In 1989, while working at Christiana High School as a guidance counselor, Bill once again accepted the position of Head Football Coach where he led the Vikings to the State Championship in 1991 and was honored with the title “Delaware’s Coach of the Year” that same year.  His success at CHS continued when the Vikings won the Blue Hen Conference Flight A Championship as well as the State Championship in 1994.

In 2002 Bill suffered yet another heart attack which required bypass surgery and an early retirement from Christina School District as counselor and head football coach of the Vikings.  But years later, Bill’s  passion for football and coaching led him to accept a position with Rising Sun’s High School football staff.  It was here that he re-discovered the best of both worlds as an assistant football coach again.  In 2014 Bill ended his coaching career at Hodgson fVo-Tech due to serious health complications. 

Some of Bill’s proudest moments were coaching the Blue/Gold Game.  He was fortunate enough to have been selected to coach the Gold team three times (1965, 1968 & 1992) and the Blue team in 2012.  In 1992 he was especially proud to have his granddaughter, Courtney, as his Buddy for the game.

In addition to his parents, Bill is preceded in death by his brother, Thomas Muehleisen, and sister, Anne Braun.  Bill will be dearly missed by his wife of 33 years, Gail, and his seven children: Nancy Bell (Ty), Kevin Muehleisen, Tom Muehleisen (Kathy), Mike Muehleisen (Kristy), Erin Sandlhauser (Marc), Meghan Diana (Dave) and Kate Healy (Brian).  He is also survived by thirteen grandchildren: Courtney, J.T. (Karrin), Kenny (Shannon), Gabbie, Mikey, Curran (Sidney), Justin, Abi, Maddie, Nate, Brady, Zack and Grace.

A viewing will be held on Saturday, March 3, 2018 from 2:00 - 4:30pm at the Doherty Funeral Home, 3200 Limestone Road, Wilmington 19808 with prayer services immediately following at 4:30pm.  Interment will be private.

Since the Blue/Gold Game was very special to Bill, in lieu of flowers, the family is requesting  contributions to the Delaware Foundation Reaching Citizens (DFRC.org), 640 Plaza Drive, Newark, DE 19702.

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