Services for Karle E. Wicker, 63, a retired teacher and an avid supporter of amateur baseball, will be held at 11 a.m. Monday in Dietrich Funeral Home, 2480 Kensington Ave., Amherst. A memorial service will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday in Brighton Community Baptist Church, 1225 Brighton Road, Town of Tonawanda. Burial will be in Acacia Park Cemetery, Pendleton.

Wicker died Friday (March 25, 1994) on the steps of Pilot Field, where he was scheduled to meet with a representative of the Buffalo Bisons.

"Between teaching and his family and baseball, they were equal in importance," said Wicker's son, Kevin. "Baseball was his life after his job and his family."

Wicker, a resident of Amherst, was born in Buffalo and graduated from East High School, where he played baseball and other sports, and Buffalo State College, where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees.

He managed Little League baseball teams as well as adult baseball teams. At the time of his death he was director of the Buffalo Muny AAA League, the highest amateur league in Western New York, and Western New York regional director of the American Amateur Baseball Congress.

His son said Wicker suffered a heart attack on his way to a meeting about possible funding from the Buffalo Bisons for Muny AAA tournaments this year.

Wicker retired 15 months ago from Amherst Middle School after 40 years. He spent his entire teaching career in the Amherst Central School system. He also taught at Harlem Road School, Smallwood Drive School, where he was assistant principal in 1967-68, and sixth grade chairman. He also directed the musical operetta at Smallwood for many years and founded the school's summer school, which was proposed in his master's thesis.

Wicker was a consultant with the University at Buffalo, acting as a field tester on science education, and the state Department of Education. He made presentations at state and national curriculum conferences and wrote curricula for science and math, social studies and reading for Amherst schools.

He was a former member of Zion United Church of Christ, where he was Sunday School superintendent, and a member of Brighton Community Baptist Church, where he was a Sunday School teacher and member of the board of Christian education.

In addition to his son, Kevin of the City of Tonawanda, he is survived by his wife of 40 years, the former Dorothy Schweitzer; a daughter, Deborah Lynn MacRitchie of Saginaw, Mich.; and eight grandchildren.