William Webster Yoder

William Webster “Bill” Yoder, 95, of Avon Park, Florida, died peacefully on January 21, 2026. He was born May 17, 1930, in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, to Webster Herb Yoder and Hattie (Dunathan) Yoder.

Bill graduated from Mount Carmel High School and attended Findlay College in Findlay, Ohio, where he met Joan Diane Ritter. They graduated together in 1951 and were married that June. Their marriage lasted nearly sixty-seven years, until Joan’s death on March 4, 2018.

Following college, Bill served in the United States Navy from 1951 to 1955 as a communications officer aboard the USS Taconic, attaining the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade. He was stationed at Portsmouth Naval Base in Virginia and lived in nearby Norfolk.

After his military service, Bill returned to Mount Carmel and joined his father in the Yoder Insurance Agency. He eventually operated the agency himself, serving generations of local families before retiring and selling the business to Varano Insurance Agency.

Bill was deeply committed to his hometown and to the broader community. From 1958 to 1970, he served as president of the Anthracite Expressway Association and worked with a coalition of local business leaders known as “The Road Gang” to advocate for a highway route that would serve the anthracite region. He made repeated trips to Washington, D.C., as part of those efforts. The planned corridor was ultimately shifted east through Schuylkill and Luzerne Counties, improving transportation access to the region. Bill considered this one of his most significant civic accomplishments.

Bill was a strong supporter of Mount Carmel Area High School athletics and the Mounties Band and served as president of the Band Parents Association. He was publicity director for Mount Carmel’s Centennial Celebration in 1962. In 1968, he received the Pennsylvania Chamber of Commerce Executives Award of Merit for more than a decade of distinguished service.

He was also a dedicated Rotarian, serving as treasurer of the Mount Carmel Rotary Club for thirty-one years, from 1957 to 1988. Later, after moving to Florida, he remained active in the Avon Park Rotary Club and participated up until his death. Thanks to his life-long contributions he was recognized as a Paul Harris Fellow.

His connection to his alma mater also remained strong throughout his life. Bill served on the Board of Trustees of the University of Findlay from 1973 to 1994, a period of twenty-one years, and received the university’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1997.

Faith and service were equally important to Bill. He was an active member of the First Church of God in Mount Carmel, serving as Sunday School superintendent for fifteen years and holding numerous leadership positions within the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference of the First Church of God. He devoted thirty-seven years to the Doubling Gap Center, known as Camp Yolijwa, serving as a counselor, teacher, board member, and ultimately president of the board. In 1985, he received the Distinguished Volunteer Award from Christian Camping International.

For all of Bill’s professional and civic accomplishments, he considered his family his greatest blessing. He was a loving husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather who remained deeply devoted to those he loved. He and Joan shared a life rich in family, friendship, faith, music, and simple pleasures.

Bill and Joan were avid birdwatchers who could identify many species simply by their songs. Even when they could no longer easily get into the field, family phone calls often included reports on the feathered visitors at their backyard feeders. They also loved puzzles of all kinds, and every Christmas visit seemed to find a jigsaw puzzle underway. No family gathering was complete without at least a few games of Scrabble.

Music was another enduring part of family life. Besides church choirs, solos and quartets, Bill played the ukulele from his college years, and his children grew up singing songs such as “K-K-K-Katy,” “You Are My Sunshine,” and “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” with him. One of his children’s fondest memories is of him coming in at bedtime to hear prayers and sing to them in his beautiful baritone voice. He drew on the big-band music and popular songs of the 1930s and 1940s that he loved; “Sleepy Time Gal” and “I Gotta Have My Baby Back” remain forever associated with those times. He also loved hymns and, even in his final days, challenged himself to memorize and sing them.

Bill had a sweet tooth, and Joan kept the family well supplied with homemade cookies, pies, and cakes. His favorite birthday dinner was her apple dumplings. After Joan was gone, the family continued making them as she had taught them—and no one minded having dessert for dinner once a year, grandchildren included.

Some of the family’s happiest memories are of the weeklong tent camping trips they took each summer. Bill and Joan usually chose destinations in the Mid-Atlantic or New England, making sure the family visited local historical sites and attractions. But the children especially loved hiking, cooking on their trusty Coleman stove, and building campfires (and of course singing around them). The trips reflected Bill’s love of the outdoors and sharing new experiences with his family.

Bill was deeply proud of his hometown of Mount Carmel and often wore his red-and-white Mount Carmel baseball cap to spark conversations about the town he loved.

Bill is survived by his children, David Gregory Yoder of Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania; Jeffrey Lane Yoder and his wife, Leah Mitula Yoder, of East Haven, Connecticut, and Nairobi, Kenya; and Susan Diane Yoder Benton of East Haven, Connecticut; grandchildren Kayla Rose Yoder of Milford, Connecticut, and Jacob William Yoder of Santa Cruz, California; and great-grandson Cyrus David of Milford, Connecticut. He was predeceased by his wife, Joan Diane (Ritter) Yoder, and his brother, Robert D. Yoder.

A memorial service will be held at Union Congregational Church in Avon Park, Florida, on October 24, 2026. Bill and Joan both chose cremation and will be laid to rest together in Mount Carmel Cemetery.

Memorial contributions may be made to Doubling Gap Center, Newville, Pennsylvania, or Union Congregational Church of Avon Park, Florida.

Bill gave much of his life to serving others, but his legacy lives equally in the small moments that became family memories: a bird identified by its song, a campfire glowing after a day of sightseeing, a puzzle spread across the card table, a game of Scrabble, Joan’s apple dumplings, a groaner of a pun, or a hymn sung from memory. Those are the memories his family will carry with them, and among the many reasons he will be so deeply missed.

Cremation arrangements entrusted to:
Stephenson-Nelson Funeral Home
Avon Park, Florida
Online condolences may be left at
www.stephensonnelsonfh.com