In memory: Bill Sittig, a community streets, parks and streams activist

by Marlene Berlin

William J. Sittig, a longtime and active member of the Van Ness/Forest Hills community, died on February 10th. He was 80 years old.

I knew him as a fellow community activist and a friend. And to his friends and neighbors, he was Bill.

Bill Sittig was one of the original members of ANC 3F’s Van Ness Vision Committee, which was established in 2013 and was precursor to today’s Van Ness Main Street. Mary Beth Ray, headed this committee and served with him on the ANC’s Parks and Trails Committee.

“Bill was passionate about our beautiful neighborhood,” said Ray, “and his enthusiasm extended to both the vibrancy of our commercial corridor and the natural beauty of Soapstone and Rock Creek Park. He was a warm and friendly presence at meetings, and he always had a kind word for others. He will surely be missed by friends and neighbors alike!”

Bill also served as an ANC 3F commissioner from 2017 through 2018. Pat Jakopchek was the chair at the time, and remembers him has “a kind, thoughtful, and selfless individual who was committed to improving our community and believed in local government’s ability and responsibility to make that happen.”

I had the pleasure of serving with him as a commissioner on ANC 3F. Bill was so invested in his work that, on the night he won his special election, he asked us to pass a resolution empowering him to officially advocate on behalf of Murch Elementary School at an upcoming hearing being held before he could be formally sworn in. It passed unanimously.

Bill was always willing to lend a hand to anyone who needed it. He went above and beyond to make our neighborhood a better place to live. He helped lead subcommittees focused on improving our streets and sidewalks, and parks and trails, and later served on the taskforce that redistricted ANCs across Ward 3.

But Bill’s contributions went beyond these visible efforts. He was a great listener, always eager to discuss my day job in politics or hear stories about my kids. Bill’s passing is a loss for our entire community and I, like so many others, will miss the joy and friendship he brought to it.

I discovered one of Bill’s less-visible efforts one day in 2020. He was collecting water samples from Soapstone Creek.

He explained he was working as a volunteer for a creekwater testing program overseen by the DC Department of Energy and the Environment, and he agreed to write an article about the testing effort and its findings. So Bill was the first to report in Forest Hills Connection on the very high and unsafe levels of E. coli in Soapstone and other Rock Creek tributaries.

A couple of years later, Bill and I began working together to advocate for the inclusion of senior living residences and senior services in DDOT outreach on its Connecticut Avenue Reversible Lane, Safety and Operations Study.

Before we could proceed further, Bill’s wife of 49 years, Divna Todorovich, died suddenly in November 2022. He was devastated. We emailed back and forth, and I brought him food. After a period with no contact, Bill emailed that he’d had a stroke and was rehabbing with his son, Alexander, in Kensington. He expected to be back in the neighborhood at some point, but it was not to be. My friend and fellow activist was gone.

I was left with many memories.

My favorite memory of Bill is comparing notes on a same hiking trip we each took to Peru, a year apart. It took us up the Salkantay Pass at 15,090 feet. I found getting up to that height on our own steam and oxygen the roughest part of the trip. Bill found coming down a very steep grade the next day the toughest. He did it in 2016, when he would have been 74 years old. I can only hope to keep up with his hiking prowess.

And I will miss Bill’s presence in our neighborhood.