Stanley William "Bill" Wenta III, 53, of Columbia City, died at 5:51 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, 2022, at his home.

Born on September 28, 1968, in Jackson, Michigan, he was a son of Stanley William Wenta, Jr. and Mary Kathleen "Kay" (Ward) Wenta.  As a special need child, he attended education classes in Flint, MI and Northcrest in Fort Wayne.  For the past 32 years, he resided in a Columbia City Passages Group home and worked at the Passages workshop until he retired due to his health.

Bill enjoyed being with people and had a great sense of humor.  He loved a good joke and a good party.  Bill loved his immediate family and his Passages family.  He loved his comic books, movies (action or musicals) and superheroes.  Whenever he would come home for a visit, he had a superhero in his hand and wanted to play with his nieces and nephew's action figures and toys! Bill loved music!  His musical tastes ran from the Beatles to Elvis, through Michael Jackson, to John Travolta & Olivia Newton-John, with a little country and a little Gospel and any and all John Williams' scores and movies.

He also loved being at the lake but mostly IN the water.  He enjoyed going to amusement parks and animal parks and riding around anywhere with his buddies to look at Christmas lights and, hopefully, finding Santa.

Surviving are his parents, Stan and Kay of Columbia City; a brother, Jeffrey M. (Kathryn "Katie") Wenta of Fort Wayne and a sister, Carrie M. (Eric) Cearbaugh of Columbia City. He is also survived by several nieces and nephews that he thoroughly enjoyed being "Uncle Bill" to Audrey A. and Elora S. Wenta of Fort Wayne, Jaden E. Cearbaugh of Walla Walla, WA, Hailey R. Cearbaugh of Fort Wayne, Evan J., Eddie M., Will G., Lily J., and Jude A. Cearbaugh of Columbia City.  Also surviving is a close family member, Maureen Zottoli, Bill's sister-in-law Katie's mother as well as many aunts, uncles and cousins.

He was preceded in death by all four grandparents, Stanley William Wenta Sr., and Clara (Rusk) Wenta, F. Carter and B. Jean (Ward Brigance) Thomas; two uncles, Jay W. Reynolds and William "Bill" Ward, and his aunt Janet (Johnson) Reynolds.

A celebration of life will be held at 4 p.m. April 30 at Smith & Sons Funeral Home with visitation from 1 p.m. until the celebration of life at the funeral home.

Preferred memorials in Bill's honor are to Easterseals Passages, 333 N. Oak Street, Columbia City, IN  46725.