Michael Walter Stetter, D.Ed., aged 77, of Wilmington, Delaware, passed away on September 20, 2024, surrounded by loving family and in the care of Christiana Hospital.
Mike was born in 1947 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Walter and Audrey Stetter. The Stetter family line in Lancaster stretches back two hundred years. Through four generations, they ran the family fish business, Stetter’s Seafood, and Mike helped his grandfather, father, uncle, and other family members at the market stand. Throughout his life, seafood was a favorite meal: all kinds of fish, cioppino, hardshell crabs, and seafood chowder.
A graduate of Conestoga Valley High School, Mike went on to earn degrees from Franklin & Marshall College, James Madison University, and Pennsylvania State University, from which he earned his Doctorate in Education. Mike also served three years in the United States Army.
Throughout his career in education, Mike served children and families through a wide range of positions: school psychologist with the Capital Area Intermediate Unit; child and family psychologist of his own practice in Harrisburg, PA; principal at Mountain View Elementary in Harrisburg and Schaeffer Elementary School in Lancaster. Mike and Linda then moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where Mike served as the Executive Director of Accountability & Research in the Brandywine School District in Wilmington. Later he joined the Delaware Department of Education in Dover, where he was Director of Curriculum Development, followed by the position of Director of Accountability Resources, from which he retired.
During his time at Franklin & Marshall, he met his future wife, Linda Manspeaker, a student at the Lancaster General Hospital School of Nursing. Their marriage endured and strengthened through nearly 55 years. Together they raised three sons, celebrated the births of two granddaughters, nurtured lifelong friendships, and enjoyed the companionship of a long line of Standard Poodles. He and Linda relished their travels abroad, with tours of Egypt, China, Argentina, and all over Europe.
Mike loved many things: hiking in the Pennsylvania forests, riding his bicycle along the Delaware shore, working in the yard and garden, taking on house projects of all sorts – with a special fondness for building rock walls – and reading in a wide range of topics (politics, American history, education, philosophy) and authors (James Baldwin, Graham Greene, Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck, Shakespeare).
Mike was a member of St John’s United Church of Christ (UCC) in Red Lion, Pennsylvania, where Mike and Linda married. He was also a member of the Consistory at the Church, and the treasurer of the neighborhood’s civic association.
He is survived by his wife Linda; son Timothy (Sandra) Stetter; son Kevin (Kristy) Stetter; two granddaughters Ava and Grace Stetter; and brother Christopher (Anne) Stetter and sister Ellen (Jon) Armstrong.
He is preceded in death by his father, mother, and son Matthew Stetter.
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