William Schuemann

WILLIAM E. SCHUEMANN "BILL", of South Euclid, passed away Aug. 13, 2024. Aged 81 years. The devoted husband of Nancy Loyan Schuemann, beloved uncle and great-uncle, "pet-daddy" to GSP Paisley, preceded in death by his parents, Howard and Dorothy (nee Williamson) and sister Beverly Wirth. Bill was born in Cleveland in 1943, and spent his childhood in Shaker Heights, where he attended Hawken School. After graduation, in 1958, Bill went to Culver Military Academy, where he was a member of the Culver Rifles Honor Guard. Graduating in 1962, he then attended Arizona State, pledging into Alpha Delta Sigma Advertising Fraternity in his senior year. During the four years at Arizona State, he drove some 140,000 miles photographing most of the national parks and monuments in all of the western states. This endeavor consumed weekends and breaks. During the summers, he returned to Cleveland to work in sales at the Dodd Company on Huron Road.

After graduation, in 1966, with a BS in General Business, Bill turned down opportunities to work for Boeing in Washington State and Security First National in Los Angeles, in preference to working with his father at the Schuemann-Jones Company, suppliers of medical and surgical supplies and equipment since 1902.

Not long after graduation, the draft board became interested (he also had asthma), and shortly after, The Cleveland Board of Education became his home, while he worked as a substitute teacher. He pursued a BS in Education at Cleveland State, and gained full-time employment at St. Rita's Catholic School, where he taught sixth grade for two years.

About the time 1970 rolled around, The Schuemann-Jones Company was sold to Healthcare Corp of Boston. Bill was offered a five-year contract as Vice President-Credit Manager. Number crunching became more than a full-time job, free of any creativity. The love affair with photography interested him more.

In 1977, corporate life, with new owners, changed the way he liked to do business. Bill changed jobs and obtained an outside sales job at Irvin and Company in Shaker Heights, in the field of contract design sales and photography. The company folded in 1978, and was dissolved.

This provided Bill the opportunity to become self-employed. Entering the difficult and tedious field of architectural Photography proved rewarding and provided plenty of time for creativity on the job. He even ended up having a job at the grand opening of the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel in Hawaii.

Commissions included photographing the famous buildings that comprise the Cleveland skyline. Healthcare projects included buildings at the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and MetroHealth Medical Center. Specialty "magic hour" shots of the Brown's Stadium on opening night, Jacob's Field, Gund Arena and the $500 million Tower City renovation and Ritz-Carlton Hotel. He was the official architectural photographer of the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. His images of the I.M.Pei-designed building appeared on an MBNA credit card, tee-shirts, mugs, mousepads, posters, postcards, merchandise tags and more. These and countless high-profile projects were completed using a large-format 4" x 5" view camera. Commissions took Bill away as far as the exotic Seychelles Islands in the Indian Ocean.

Besides photography, Bill was a member of the Cleveland Rotary Club, Cleveland Engineering Society, the Professional Men's Club, Western Reserve Camera Club, First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland and Church of the Saviour Methodist Church. His hobbies included photography, collecting antique Buick automobiles, collecting antique safes, going to estate sales and antique shops, and working in his basement woodshop.

Bill was married to Nancy Loyan Schuemann for 37 years (dated for five years). They loved a myriad of "fur babies," the latest being Paisley, a purebred, award-winning German Shorthaired Pointer.

Bill was loved, and will be missed!

Interment Lake View Cemetery. Memorial service Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, at Church of the Saviour, 2537 Lee Rd., Cleveland Hts., at 11 AM. Arrangements entrusted to THE DeJOHN-FLYNN MYLOTT FUNERAL HOME OF SOUTH EUCLID.