I was born in August of 1925.  During the depression years, my mother would hand me a pail and send me down the block to the railroad tracks where I would pick up coal that had fallen off the train cars … The coal that would help supplement heat in our home during those years.  It was a time I knew I would never forget, and that the memory of those depression years would have a profound and positive affect on my life.  As I grew, I enjoyed football and boxing, and I was even proficient on a pair of ice skates.  They were simple and difficult years.  But they were my years.

In 1943, my mother and father, Alma and George, did not like the idea of me enlisting, but they knew it was my duty to go and protect our country from a tyrant.  I took up station as a front line radio operator in the United States, Marine Corps with the Pacific Fleet.  We liberated many small islands along the pacific coast of Asia.  In 1945 we waited on our deployment to attack the island of Japan, but alas, that was not meant to be.  So I was destined to return to the Fox River Valley where I would become a third hand operator, on #3 paper machine at Combined Locks Paper Manufacturing.

I found myself taking fancy of a gal who worked in the mill's office. Her name was Jean.  She became the love of my life.  In 1950, we married.  We made Kaukauna our home. I worked my way up in the paper mill industry. Jean was a stay-at-home mother.  We raised three wonderful children: Bob, Dan and Jim.

Where the time has gone I do not know.  But as I count my memories of those years: camping, fishing and teaching my children how to work with their hands, my most blessed memory was coming home from a day's work to be greeted by my wife and partner-in-life, Jean Marie.

I lost Jean to old age seven years ago.  And now, at 97, I lay in this nursing home bed with my three sons and sweet daughter-in-law Debbie at my side.

On the morning of December 6, Two Thousand and Twenty Two, with my middle son, Dan, holding my hand, my feeble body took its last breath.

And so, I look forward to dwelling with my beautiful bride, along with family and loved ones, in heaven, Forever and Ever. Amen.

I have decided on a private service with my family and will be laid to rest next to my wife, Jean, at St. Mary Cemetery in Kaukauna.

I would like to thank the wonderful people who took care of me from ThedaCare Hospice and Country Villa during the last weeks of my life. And so, in lieu of flowers, if you choose to make a contribution, please direct those contributions to ThedaCare Hospice or Country Villa in Little Chute.