William Paul Casper
William Paul Casper was born at home January 29th, 1931 to Albert and Theresa (Langenfeld) Casper. The farmstead on which he was raised is on the east shore of Lake Winnebago. He was second youngest of seven Casper kids including brothers Robert and Donald, and sister’s Laura, Betty Jane, Patricia and the baby of the brood, Mary Lou.
Farming wasn’t the easiest vocation in the 30’s and 40’s. Up early every day, milking, chores, learning to drive the tractor as soon as you were tall enough to reach the clutch. Dad loved telling stories about when he was a kid, how his dog Rowdy was always at his side. Rowdy was the family farm dog…but he was “dad’s dog.” I guess in hopes that there was a life lesson somewhere to be found, dad told us the story of how, in the day, if animals got sick, very seldom could a visit from the vet be afforded. It was one fateful day when dad was twelve his father told him Rowdy had suffered long enough and it was time. Our grandpa told his young son to get a shovel and his .22 and take Rowdy to the woods. Imagine you’re 12. You’ve been told to dig a shallow grave with your faithful companion unwittingly watching, pawing at the dirt, in some way helping. Then it’s time to ask him to ‘lay down, boy’ one last time.
Evenings on the Casper farm were spent making music. Donald played harmonica, Bob the French horn, Patty the harp, Betty Jane an exceptional accordionist, Laura on stand-up bass while Mary Lou and dad played piano together, all self taught…everybody would sing.
Dad played clarinet by ear in the L.P. Goodrich High School band…couldn’t read a note. He took pride in that, as he did in earning a letter as part of the FFA. He loved chiding his ‘athletic letter-earning’ kids that his was awarded for being a future farmer. Who knew you could letter in baling hay?
As it turned out farming was not to be his future. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and spent two of his four-year tour on the island of Guam during the Korean War.
One winter while home on leave dad went to watch his sister Mary Lou play basketball. Considered a home game in Brothertown in the dance hall above the saloon, it was there he first laid eyes on a skinny redhead playing for the opposing Mt. Calvary Blue Jays. Not only was she cute, he thought, but she also had a sweet little right-handed baby hook shot. In the tavern after the game dad locked eyes from across the bar with Kathleen Jugenheimer. He got up the gumption to introduce himself. The small talk led to his offering her a ride home in his 31′ Chevy.
Their courtship began in earnest when he returned from service. They were married in 1956 and this June they would have celebrated their 69th anniversary.
Dad was never an idler. Always tinkering, fixing, building. He has patents for three of his brainstorms that came to fruition: The Belt-Rite tool for testing the tension of belts on enormous machines he helped build while employed, at first as a machinist and then a foreman, at Giddings & Lewis in Fond du Lac, the Lite-a-Tree hook for hanging outdoor Christmas lights, and The Measure-Up, a device designed to track the height of your children as they grow.
In the late 70’s he hauled the pieces of the aforementioned 31′ Chevy into the downstairs workshop of our home in Peebles. He restored the car to like new, knocked a hole in the cinder block wall and drove it out of the basement.
He was an ice boater, hunter, fisherman and conservationist. As a youngster his uncle Ambrose Langenfeld took him out on the frozen lake and taught him how to spear sturgeon. It was in 1977 when
dad noticed what he thought was a dwindling supply of lake sturgeon, and he set out to do something about it. With the support of several fishermen and women, Sturgeon for Tomorrow was born. Dad thought with the help of the Department of Natural Resources they could repopulate Lake Winnebago of the prehistoric fish. The DNR thought him a crackpot and eschewed his idea. Never one to be dissuaded after first being dismissed by those who wield governmental power, yet who are dim of wit, he went on without them. 48 years later Sturgeon for Tomorrow boasts 5 organized chapters around Wisconsin’s lakes and one in Cheboygan, Michigan with members numbering in the thousands. To date SFT has raised more than 1.1 million dollars that goes back into education, conservation, water management and proliferation of the lake sturgeon. Lake’s Winnebago and Poygan are now replete with sturgeon and Sturgeon for Tomorrow is now adored by the DNR.
While Chairman of the Town of Taycheedah he developed Kiekhaefer Park and its town hall with his friend E.C. Kiekhaefer. It was also during his tenure as chairman he helped facilitate the construction of the Fishermen’s Road breakwater and harbor. And as a member of Fond du Lac’s Sanitary District he proposed the city extend the sewerage line up the east shore providing sewerage service to its inhabitants.
As a member of the Fond du Lac County Board the UWFDL Campus project was established, as was Rolling Meadows Golf Course.
His iconic Green Bay Packer helmet-shaped fishing shanty once graced the National Mall in Washington D.C. as part of tribute to the state of Wisconsin. It was on that trip that he rubbed elbows with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a fellow conservationist. The elbow rubbing led to an invitation extended to both mom and dad to the Kennedy compound where dad regaled fellow partygoers with tales of speared sturgeon from his past. Dad had to ask mom who the one particular woman was who had listened with rapt attention to his stories…she said, “That was Glenn Close.” The shanty now resides in the Wisconsin Historical Museum in Madison.
Another wild hair…he liked golf, so one day he and ma and his daughter Barb began building a 9-hole par 3 golf course, named it Thornbrook and maintained and operated it for many summers.
Over the years his grandson’s Michael Williams and Christian Casper and his dear friend Ellen Balthazor helped transcribe and edit several of his stories, some of which were published in Our Wisconsin Magazine. He loved seeing his anecdotes in print but moreover anticipated the prize of a pecan pie which he thought more prestigious than the Pulitzer.
Not wanting to just sit around during the COVID lockdown, his daughter Barbara Jean encouraged him to take up woodcarving, and son-of-a-gun if he didn’t take to it like a duck to water creating some extraordinary pieces of art.
He is survived by his wife Kathleen, his sister Mary Lou (Vic) Schneider, his son Michael and grandson’s Benjamin and his wife Jen (Rye) and Gordon, and Alexander William Casper, his daughter Barbara Jean, his son Nicholas and wife Khristin (Williams), their children Michael and wife Mallory Williams and their kids, Bill’s great granddaughter Emiliana and great grandson Robert John, and Nick and Khristin’s son Christian and his wife Alaina (Gussert) and Penny and June. Two granddaughters from his eldest daughter Sharron (Mark) Kimmel, Christine (Keith) Kimmel, and Lauren Mary (Ryan) Miller and their kids and Bill’s great granddaughters, Cordelia and Audra Delphine. He is also survived by his cousin and great friend Paul Langenfeld and innumerable other relatives and dear friends.
Preceding him in death, his parents and elder siblings, and his cherished daughter, Sharron.
How do you sum up 94 years of a life well lived?
Bill Casper was the kindest man I ever knew…a level-headed visionary, funny, always on the go, always a step ahead. He never wavered and wanted to leave the world a better place than he found it. He was a great husband to mom, and a spectacular father to us kids, and we’re sure, even though he is missed, he was happy to reunite with his ma and pa, brothers and sisters, Sharron…and Rowdy.
We’d like to thank the SSM St. Agnes Hospital staff, everyone at Harbor Haven, and the incredible volunteer caregivers at SSM Hospice Home of Hope. Dad donated his body to science to the Wisconsin School of Medicine.
In lieu of flowers please donate to the Malone Area Heritage Museum or the conservation club of your choice.
A Memorial Mass will be held for Bill at Holy Family Catholic Church, 271 Fourth Street Way, Fond du Lac on Friday, May 23rd at 2:00 p.m. Visitation will begin at Noon until the time of Mass.
Online condolences can be shared at zacherlfuneralhome.com.