Pastor William E. Dudgeon, Sr.

William Edward Dudgeon, Sr., age 93 years, formerly of Niles, Michigan; father, grandfather, uncle, outdoorsman, educator, pastor, and devout Adventist died peacefully at 3:28 p.m. on Sunday, August 2, 2026 with his family gathered around his bedside at University of Michigan Health-West Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan following a brief illness.

He was born on November 17, 1932 in Troy, New York to William Allen and Ella (Flack) Dudgeon, and was graduated from the Union Springs (New York) Seventh-day Adventist Academy. He continued his education at the former Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster, Massachusetts, earning a bachelors degree in education, and began his career as a teacher and administrator at Adventist schools in Vienna, Utica, and Glens Falls, New York. He then moved to schools in Hartford, Connecticut and Wilson, Michigan before receiving a personal call from God to enter the pastorate.

Bill answered that call to pastor an Adventist church in Saint Johnsbury, Vermont, followed by churches in Barre, Vermont, New Haven, Connecticut, Worcester, Massachusetts, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. In New Mexico, he was called to a Native American ministry, spending three years in the Navajo Nation near Gallup before his retirement from forty-four years in full-time ministry.

In retirement, Pastor Bill filled interim and part-time positions at the Michigan Adventist congregations of Bangor, Dowagiac, Pullman, and finally at the Niles Westside Seventh-day Adventist Church. As recently as a few weeks ago, he was still leading a Bible Study at Niles Westside, currently in the book of Hosea, but teaching from his home in Grand Rapids, using the videotelephonic technology of Zoom Workplace.

When Bill – and his family – were young, they enjoyed traveling from Vermont to Cape Cod Bay in Massachusetts for camping in a tent. He also enjoyed hiking, including completing a portion of the 272 mile Long Trail in Vermont, where his son remembers another tent camping event when they awakened from a rainy night to find the inside peak of the tent covered with mosquitoes, which had spent the night harvesting blood from the sleeping hikers.

Wherever Pastor Bill was posted, he volunteered at the area Adventist campground; in his younger years, painting buildings, and more recently driving the passenger shuttle between the parking lot and various events. He always maintained a vegetable garden, enjoying corn and other healthy, fresh produce.

On June 26, 1955 in Worcester, Massachusetts he married the former Jane Adeline Roberts with whom he celebrated the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of their wedding prior to her death on January 17, 1981. He was also preceded in death by their daughters, Marcia Joy Dudgeon on September 3, 2011, and Sharon Jane Dudgeon on November 23, 2022; and by Bill’s siblings, Shirley Ann Brockway, Marjorie Grace Nagle, Kathleen Marian Hicks, and Howard Allen Dudgeon.

Surviving family includes his son, William E. (& Cheryl) Dudgeon, Jr. of Jenison, Michigan; grandchildren, Tricia E. (& Tony) Krezinski, and Pastor William E. (& Cali) Dudgeon III; great-grandchildren Eloise, Evalynn, and Eden; and many nieces and nephews.

Services in Niles for Pastor William E. Dudgeon, Sr. are pending, and will be announced on this site. Committal will be private, at Rose Hill Cemetery in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Contributions in memory of Pastor Bill may be made to the Niles Adventist School Student Aid Fund, 110 North Fairview Avenue, Niles, Michigan 49120; https://nilesadventistschool.org/. Arrangements are being completed at the Halbritter-Wickens Funeral Home, 615 East Main Street in Niles. Memories and condolences may be left online at:

www.halbritterwickens.com

Psalms 90:10 suggests that we might live to be 70, or by strength 80, and Bill significantly exceeded that, using most of the years of his life to minister to others through teaching in school, pastoring congregations, and continuous Bible study. He endured – by faith – the grief of the death of two daughters, while at the same time embracing new technology so that his aging health could not hinder sharing Jesus with others. He even connected his hearing aids to his mobile telephone to take calls, and at his death, left three active tablet computers working in his apartment. All of this as evidence of actively, intentionally fulfilling the command to love God and love people.