Community mourns the loss of caring and dedicated man
By Kellen Olshefski and Anne Trautner
Independent Staff
Vehicles of mourners lined Elkhorn’s South Broad Street outside of St. John’s Lutheran Church Monday as services in remembrance of Tim Schiefelbein unfolded.
Schiefelbein, a dedicated representative on the Walworth County Board of Supervisors and a former employee of the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department died at the age of 55 Wednesday, Dec. 4, at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee after battling a seven-year illness.
Schiefelbein was born March 13, 1958, to Clifford and Joan Schiefelbein in Janesville and graduated with Elkhorn High School’s Class of 1976.
Schiefelbein’s father spoke of his son’s enduring dedication to bettering the lives of not only the people in his district, but the community he grew up in.
According to Cliff Schiefelbein, a former principal at Elkhorn’s West Side Elementary, Tim Schiefelbein developed a love for people working part-time for Elkhorn’s Police Department.
“He was a real people person; he enjoyed being with people,” he said. “He wanted to be with people and help them.”
According to Cliff Schiefelbein, Tim Schiefelbein’s love for the people in his community eventually led him down a long path of community service, helping the area’s needy, volunteering at local nursing homes every week, and working with people at Vocational Industries.
“He really enjoyed the people at Vocational Industries,” Cliff Schiefelbein said.
“He loved walking them around the fairgrounds, or wherever they went, even though he had difficulty walking himself after he broke his ankle. He did that for quite a few years.”
Cliff Schiefelbein said his son was a fond supporter of the Walworth County Alliance for Children and The Children’s Home of their Own.
“He was really proud of what they’ve done with the Home of their Own,” he said.
“He volunteered for the abused children and abused women. He just spent a lot of time on that.”
Further aiding area children, Tim Schiefelbein taught Tae Kwon Do in Elkhorn for several years. Active in martial arts, he had achieved his fourth-degree black belt, earning him the title of Master.
“His students were always at the top of his list,” Cliff Schiefelbein said.
Tim Schiefelbein was a dedicated employee of the Walworth County Sheriff’s department for more than 29 years.
During his time with the department, he served as lieutenant of the Drug Unit, worked as a captain in the central office, and worked as a detective.
“He really loved the Sheriff’s Department,” Cliff Schiefelbein said.
“Every time they moved him from one department to another, he grew into it and thoroughly enjoyed it.”
In addition to protecting and serving Walworth County from the law enforcement side, Tim Schiefelbein took his dedication for the surrounding community to a new level, running for public office to represent Walworth County’s District 1, covering much of the Elkhorn and Sugar Creek areas.
According to Cliff Schiefelbein, in the time Tim Schiefelbein served on the County Board, he never accepted a dime for his work.
“Tim did a lot of good things,” Cliff Schiefelbein said.
“Probably one of his favorite things was when he was elected to the County Board. He said, ‘I’m not going to take any salary or anything, because this community has been so good to me … It’s my way of giving back.”
Chairwoman of the Walworth County Board of Supervisors, Nancy Russell, said while she hadn’t known Tim Schiefelbein prior to him running for this past term, she was very impressed with his dedication to his community.
“Even before he was elected, he started coming to meetings to get himself informed about what we did and how we did it,” she said.
According to Russell, Tim Schiefelbein attended numerous meetings of committee he wasn’t even on – including the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee – just to provide input and continue to learn about what was going on in his community.
“I was just very, very impressed with him,” she said. “I thought he was really interested in doing a good job, he took it very seriously and he did a good job.”
Russell said Tim Schiefelbein, also Chairman of the County Park Committee, was very well respected by his peers on the county board.
“It’s very rare that someone gets elected chair during their first term,” she said.
“That shows even from the beginning he was given a lot of respect.”
Russell described Tim Schiefelbein as being an honest and forthright man.
“You always knew that what he said was what he really believed,” she said.
“He was ideal for a position like on the County Board where there are no party affiliations, where you vote the way your constituency and you yourself feel is the right thing to do.
“That was perfect for him because that’s the kind of person he was, non-partisan.”
Russell said even though she only knew him for a short time, Tim Schiefelbein had become close to those on the board.
“He’ll be missed,” she said. “I really feel like I’ve lost a good friend and good colleague.”
Schiefelbein would have been up for re-election during the upcoming April election. According to Russell, Tim Schiefelbein’s mother had indicated to her Saturday that he had planned on running for re-election.
A vacant seat to fill
With Tim Schiefelbein’s death, the County Board is down to 10 members and Russell said they’re not quite sure how they will fill his seat.
“Administrator Bretl and I have talked a little bit about it but we really haven’t come to any decision,” she said.
“We were all hoping he was going to come through this.”
Russell said in the meantime, it’s important they figure something out.
“We do really need to do something right now because he had a constituency of pretty close to 10,000 people and they deserve to be represented.”
According to Russell, those interested in running for the County Board were able to begin getting signatures for nomination papers on Dec. 1. Nomination papers are due back to the county by Jan. 6 at the latest.
