William Dembski

William Joseph Dembski was born July 1, 1923, to Boleslav and Mary (nee Mlynek) Dembski in Fairview, Louisiana.  He passed away October 17, 2017, in Green Valley, Arizona. 

William received his early education in the Chicago public schools. He earned his high school diploma through the accelerated program of the G.I. Bill after WWII, in 1947.  He went on to earn his bachelor’s and master’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in education from University of Illinois in the 1950s, and a PhD in biology in 1967 from the University of Erlangen.  It was while William was on a Fulbright Scholarship in Erlangen in the 1950s that he met and married Ursula Armbruster on July 19, 1958. 

With the Great Depression in full swing, William was selling newspapers on the streets of Chicago at age 7. One time he got hit by a car and his body was tossed, unconscious, onto the grass. But he was all right (guardian angels?). A year later the hit-and-run driver identified himself, bought a newspaper, and gave William a nickel tip for his inconvenience!

After being a newspaper boy, William worked as a pin boy in a bowling alley (this was in the late 1930s, before bowling alleys were automated). Before World War II, he was working in a warehouse, moving boxes, for Montgomery Ward. He had to drop out of high school to support the family.

With war looming, he went to enlist in the Marines but decided not to when the friend he went to enlist with was refused. William had watched films about WWI, showing rat-infested trenches, so instead he joined the Navy. He figured the ship might go down, but at least he’d have a clean place to sleep at night. William was assigned convoy duty in the North Atlantic on a destroyer escort. He was a signalman. His ship was credited with sinking a German U-boat. At the end of the war, his ship was called in for repairs. The ship that replaced his was sunk by a U-boat.

William was honorably discharged in 1946. Because of the G.I. Bill, he was able to finish high school in less than a year (he had left after his sophomore year) and then went to the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana to begin college. He got to room with someone who came from wealth and who had a wonderful record collection, which introduced him to classical music, which he loved. William also came to love the academic life. He did his bachelor’s in biology, then got a master’s in education and also a master’s in biology. Next he was teaching high school in the Chicago area (he taught for one year in Libertyville, where the principal of the high school there boasted about having expelled Marlon Brando!).

When he came back to the U.S., the academic job market had changed radically against his favor. It especially did not help that he was in his mid 40s seeking a junior faculty position. So he ended up teaching at the City Colleges of Chicago from the time he returned from Germany in 1967 till his retirement from teaching.

He was a kind man who took a real interest in students. Indeed, his wife Ursula would marvel how often people would recognize him on the street and sing his praises for being a wonderful teacher. He also had a playful streak. One time, four foreign students from the same country had all not taken an exam at the appointed time. When they rescheduled it and took it in the biology faculty office (it was a big area where all the biology faculty had desks, but no one had an office to oneself), he assigned them to four desks at different corners of the room. As the exam progressed, they started speaking to one another in their foreign language (presumably trying to help each other with answers). But William was unconcerned. Finally, one of the students taking the exam blurted out “These are four different exams!” Yes, they were.

By the standards of this world, William may seem not to have accomplished all that much. He had exactly one publication, he never made a ton of money, and no streets are likely to be named after him. Yet in his family’s book he looms large. In Jesus’ parable of the talents, the challenge is to make the most of what you’ve been given. William was dealt a pretty poor hand early in life, but he played it as well as anyone could have played it. He would have enjoyed being a biology professor, like his mentor at the University of Illinois, teaching and doing research at a good university. But it was not to be.

His gift was to encourage others. William encouraged Ursula to become an art dealer, and together they were able to put together a thriving business buying and selling antique oil paintings in Europe and the U.S.

William’s ended his life as a Christian, with faith in his savior Jesus, a faith shared by his family. This world is a better and richer place because of him.

Those left to cherish his memory are his wife Ursula of 59 years, his son William Albert and daughter-in-law Jana Dembski of Pella and their children: Chloe Marie, John Daniel and William Michael. 

William was preceded in death by his parents and all his siblings: Henry, Irene Cole, Walter, and Joan Bell.

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