‘Finally Resting’ : Jasper, Ind., Remembers ‘Bionic Bill’

At the white frame house where William J. Schroeder lived, the uncollected newspaper displayed a headline Wednesday announcing the death of the man who came to be known affectionately as “Bionic Bill.”

Neighbor Cindy Terwiske heard the news of his death after 620 days on an artificial heart and remembered him as “a real sturdy, well-built German type of person who wouldn’t let go of things easily.”

“Some people said, ‘Oh, the lucky man, he lived two years with that heart,’ ” she said.

T-Shirt Says It All

Terwiske looked down at her daughter, Jami, wearing a T-shirt printed with a Jarvik-7 heart and the day of Schroeder’s transplant. The back of the shirt read “Bill’s Backers.”

“The man is finally resting. He couldn’t have been resting for all those 620 days,” Terwiske said.

“How many of us can say we ever did anything important like he did?” she asked. “He donated his whole body, not just a part of it.”

Patrolman Gil Eckerle sat in his car “to keep an eye on things” at the Schroeder home while the family gathered in Louisville, Ky.

“Jasper is a small-enough town where everybody knows everybody,” Eckerle said. “I live up the block from them. I played ball with his kids.”

Recalls Parade

Several doors up, Virginia Mehringer recalled previous years when the Schroeders would join other couples in the neighborhood at the street corner to watch the annual Strassenfest summer festival parade go by.

“A major amount of knowledge has come from his experience,” said Dr. Phil Dawkins, who along with Dr. J. P. Salb was one of Schroeder’s doctors before the artificial heart experiment.

“I think he was very positive. He was in the hopes he would have two years of active life after it was inserted,” said Dawkins, who was involved in the discussions that led to Schroeder’s decision to accept the artificial heart.

“Bill was a fighter,” said Mayor Jerome Alles. “The Bill Schroeder I remember is the guy I used to sit by at high school baseball games. He was a tough competitor.”