John Strobel. right, receives the North Penn Volunteer Fire Company’s “Spirit of a Volunteer Firefighter Award” at a fire company banquet in 2019.
A local family who has given their all for the North Penn community could use some help from that community now.
And an Oct. 7 fundraiser could make a big difference for the family, and the future, of John Strobel.
Strobel, who previously held key roles in North Penn School District, North Penn Volunteer Fire Company, North Wales Borough Council, and two local water authorities, is battling a progressive form of dementia.
“We’re five years in, after the diagnosis. The average life span is three to seven years, following a diagnosis. It could be as much as 12 — so we could have another five years, or we could have six months. We just don’t know,” said John’s wife, Karen.
Born and raised in North Wales, John is a North Penn High School Class of 1977 graduate who community members may remember from a variety of roles: custodian, then shift supervisor, then up the ranks to head of facilities for North Penn — a district bio when he retired said “John knows what is behind every wall, under every ceiling tile and behind every door in the school district” — as well as a lifetime member of the North Penn Volunteer Fire Company; former member of North Wales Borough Council; member of the North Wales and then North Penn Water Authority’s boards of directors; volunteer at Trinity Lutheran Church and more.
“And just an all-around wonderful human being, who now…can’t be left alone for just a short period of time. Going from dealing with a multimillion-dollar budget, to needing help with brushing his teeth, it’s been…humbling,” Karen said.
In 2014, John retired from his school district role, and around that time had been asked to give a speech at the fire company’s annual banquet, in his role as their board president. Karen had just successfully completed what she called “a little dance with cancer,” and worked with John to draft the speech. As John addressed the banquet, he started having trouble, which Karen thought at first were just the effects of a drink or two at the dinner.
“He was really stumbling over a speech he had written, and he and I had edited together, and practiced. He was really struggling to get through the speech. I said, ‘Dude, next year you can’t drink before you get up to give a speech,'” Karen said.
“We get to the next year, go to the banquet, and he’s up there, and he had nothing to drink — and it was worse than the previous year. He wasn’t able to read his own speech and get the words out. There were some words backwards, there were some made-up words, and before the night was over, I said, sort of joking, ‘I’m worried. You need to get your head examined. I’m worried there’s something cognitive going on.”
The two brushed off those struggles until about a year and a half later, when a trip to a local Walmart brought an even scarier sign of a problem.
“We were in the middle of Walmart, and he kept asking me about what we were there for, which was two items. I thought he was joking, so I’m like, ‘Stop asking me,’ and we’d walk away…and less than 30 seconds later, he’d ask me the same thing again, very seriously,” she said. “I kind of blew up at him, may have used a few choice words — and that’s when I realized he needed to be checked out.”
Several visits to a neurologist, tests, and an MRI later, the two got the news they had been dreading.
“The doctor said, ‘We’ve pinpointed it with almost 100 percent accuracy that he has primary progressive aphasia.’ And my world stopped. I’m like, ‘Progressive? No treatment, no cure, nothing?’ You’ve just gotta wait and watch your loved one fade away…and that’s what we’re doing. We’re watching him slip into someone who is unrecognizable.”
The official diagnosis is a type of frontotemporal degeneration, which Karen said is an “umbrella term” for several types of dementia, “specifically early-onset dementias, such as what my husband has, which is primary progressing aphasia.” Actor Bruce Willis has recently been diagnosed with the same disorder, and Karen said she’s taken to following that family on social media to keep up with how they’re handling the same ailment.
“It starts with aphasia: not being able to speak or understand spoken language. Now he’s down to, he barely speaks — he has his moments, but he barely speaks at this point. Nouns are hard for him,” she said.
Five years ago, when they received the diagnosis, John was 58, two of their three children were in college, and the third was just starting at North Penn High School, and over the past year Karen has retired from her job teaching at the high school to care for John full-time. Before the diagnosis, John had always handled the family’s finances, and Karen has had to take on that role, while also assisting with medical needs and care that’s not covered by insurance or Medicare, and working to keep the family afloat until they can access retirement savings without penalty, when John turns 65 in about a year and a half.
“He still has his odd sense of humor. He hasn’t lost that, which is good and bad. Good, because I see glimpses of who my husband used to be…bad, because his sense of humor was really quirky,” she said. “He’ll say something that’s funny, or laugh, and it’s something you’re not even sure that he understands. Those moments are filled with great joy, and great pain, because it’s like ‘Oh my God, there he is,’ for a minute, and the next minute he’s gone.”
Until recently, John still recognized A.M. Kulp Elementary, near the family’s home in Hatfield, one of several schools he helped renovate and oversee energy-efficient upgrades for in the 1990s through 2000s:
“Every time we’d ride by, he’d say ‘That’s mine,’ because that was one of his buildings.”
He also still recognizes the NPVFC’s firehouse in North Wales, and Tony’s Pizza across the street, but has trouble recognizing family members in photos. As they saw his condition get worse, fire company members asked how they could help, and that led to the planned “Beef and beer” fundraiser: on Oct. 7, from 7 to 11 p.m. The firehouse gathering is meant to raise as much as possible for John’s ongoing care.
“We don’t have a number in mind. Any amount that is raised will be wonderful. The main goal is for me to not have to worry about (finances) for the next year and a half, and focus on his care,” Karen said.
During Tuesday night’s North Wales council meeting, councilman Mark Tarlecki asked colleagues and residents to turn out and support the family, calling Strobel a “very special person” who he just missed serving alongside: “If you can find it in your heart to help John, we would appreciate it.”
Borough solicitor Greg Gifford added that he served alongside Strobel when both were on council in the late 1980s into the early ’90s, then Strobel recruited him to the fire company’s volunteer board, and said he was “very integral on everything related to the water authority, to the fire company, everything North Wales,” and was “one of the nicest guys you’d ever meet” — as he recalled the first time he met Karen, after stopping by to visit John.
“I said, ‘I know I saw someone in your house,’ and he goes ‘It’s Karen — you know my position in the district, she’s a teacher there, we’re keeping it quiet.’ So, I said, ‘Ahh — I never saw anybody in your house,'” Gifford said, drawing chuckles from Tarlecki, “and then it became public, and then they got married.”
Christine Liberaski, North Penn’s director of school and community engagement and longest-tenured administrator, said she’s seen firsthand how Strobel left his mark on the district, as the two worked together from her arrival in the district in 1998 through his retirement in 2014.
“He knew this community. In addition to knowing our buildings and grounds, and all of the infrastructure, during his time here everybody always looked at North Penn as being welcoming, and efficient, and our buildings were always so nice, and the staff he oversaw kept them that way. John had a lot to do with that,” she said.
Strobel also served on the board of the district Educational Foundation, which Liberaski oversees, and helped vet and vote ahead funding for countless projects in classrooms that the foundation support.
“John is a tremendous man, who has left a big mark on the school district. Our hearts are with him and his family, and we’re hoping that we can support him — and them — as much as we can during this time, because he spent decades supporting us,” she said.
Rev. Fritz Fowler, pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church, said this week that John is a dedicated member of the church “who has made a tremendous impact as a person of faith, civic leader, mentor, and volunteer in the North Penn Region.”
“His work at Trinity has varied, including worship assistant coordinator, Feast community meal volunteer, Code Blue Homeless Shelter volunteer, energy management team member, adopt a highway volunteer, and as a loving husband and father,” Fowler said. “Trinity is grateful for John’s impact and commitment to sharing his skills and talents so others know God’s love. This commitment is seen through his work as a civic leader, from volunteering at the fire department to his leadership with the borough council and his work with the water authority.”
Tickets for the Oct. 7 fundraiser are $40 per person and available through the fire company, or those interested in donating can send to the family via Venmo, to “Strobel Family Support” or username @KarenAStrobel, verification number 3054.
The firehouse holds a special place in their hearts: it’s where the couple first met, after Karen’s brother passed away in early 1997 and she had mourned for months, until a friend convinced her to stop by a dance night.
“I was just sitting at the bar drinking and didn’t know anybody except the person who took me. And all of a sudden, this bouncy, energetic blonde came up to me and said ‘Hi! My name is Nicole, and that’s my brother, and he really wants to dance with you, and he’s too shy to ask you, but will you dance with him?'” Karen said.
“I’m like, ‘Sure,’ and we danced, and literally the next day I told my friends ‘This is the man I’m going to marry.’ That next day, he and I talked for about four hours on the phone, and six or seven months later we were married. We met at the firehouse, and they’ve always supported their people.”
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