William Weitzel

I died today, Sunday, March 9, 2025, and I find it a bit unsettling to be dead. I think I will adjust to this in no time, and time is not likely to be an issue. I have lived a long and interesting life, and will dearly miss my family and our everchanging world. I have asked others to do this obit, but they all said ‘no hurry, you have lots of time’, so here I am stuck with the job.

I was born on a Tuesday morning at 2 am, on September 3, 1929, to Robert and Mathilda Weitzel at the Saint Cloud Hospital – a child of the great depression. I received my elementary education at Saint Anthony Catholic School, we were taught by Benedictine Sisters, ladies who had dedicated their lives to God, and teaching little urchins like me – and they were good at it! Following elementary school, I attended one year at St. Cloud Cathedral and then transferred to St. Cloud Tech, graduating in 1947. I loved sports and played varsity football, basketball, and track, and was president of the letterman’s club. I look back with pride on our 1946 football team that played a perfect season – unbeaten, untied and unscored upon. A record that lasts some 70 years later. I then enrolled at St. Cloud State University, graduating in 1951, participating in football and track, making all conference running back honors. I walked out of college with my degree and thought – what the hell am I going to do now? I began working at Montgomery Ward, selling tires for one year. Then with the Korean War coming into the picture, I enlisted in the Navy in January of 1952.

I spent the first four months of Navy life going to school in Newport, Rhode Island. I graduated from Officer's Candidate School, flew home and married my best friend and lifelong companion, Delores Sirois. We had a glorious 7-day honeymoon and said goodbye, as I crossed the Pacific Ocean and boarded the LST859 (Landing Ship Tank), which set sail the next day for Korea. I spent the next 18 months aboard the LST making trips from Japan to Korea. I was a long cruise for a newly married sailor.

I returned from Korea in early 1954 and was assigned to Gunnery Officers Ordnance School in Washington, DC. My ‘new wife’ Delores and I spent two months in Washington, DC, then another sea assignment on the USS Shasta, AE6 and a bomb carrier. I was the special weapons officer and carried a top-secret clearance. I was at sea with the USS Shasta for the next 18 months, including a 9-month tour in the Mediterranean Sea with the 6th Fleet. After completing that tour, I returned to the US where I was honorably discharged in the summer of 1955.

Following my discharge, Delores and I returned to St. Cloud, where I spent one year with Federated Mutual Insurance Company. After that first year, I was offered a sales position with Banker Systems Inc. and moved my family to Wahpeton. I traveled extensively for the next 30 years as a salesman and sales manager, retiring in the summer of 1985.

I look back and think of how fortunate we were to have chosen Wahpeton as our place to live and raise our family of four girls. We enjoyed all that Wahpeton had to offer. So many good friends, a great school system for our kids, the park, zoo, golf course, and close proximity to super hunting land on the Dave and Wanda Muehler farm near Hankinson, and we were only an hour drive to our lake home on beautiful West Battle Lake.

Mine was a long life, and I truly enjoyed my time on this planet. My final wish is that you live your life well and take care of our world - Bill

Bill's Mass of Christian Burial will be on Thursday, March 13, 2025, at 10:30 AM, with visitation one hour prior, at St. John's Catholic Church in Wahpeton. A rosary will begin at 9:30 am. Fr. Greg Haman will officiate the service.  Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery at a later date.