Obit: Hasz, Otto Henry #2 (1917 - 2006)

Contact: Crystal Wendt
Email: crystal@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Hasz, Sternitzky, Lindow, Zwicke, Schnitzler, Grass

----Sources: Marshfield News Herald (Marshfield, Wood Co., Wis.) May 7, 2006

Hasz, Otto Henry (18 Sept. 1917 - 4 May 2006)

Otto H. Hasz

GRANTON -- Otto Henry Hasz, 88, Granton, died Thursday, May 4, 2006, at his home, three miles east of Granton.

Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, May 13, 2006, at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Granton. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.

Visitation will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, May 12, 2006, at the Gesche Funeral Home in Neillsville and from 1 p.m. until service time Saturday at the church.

He was born Sept. 18, 1917, on a farm near Loganville, Sauk County, one of four children of Herman and Helen (Sternitzky) Hasz. The family moved to the town of Lynn several years later.

Otto attended the Sunbeam School and Zion Lutheran Parochial School. After graduating from Granton High School in 1936, he continued farming with his parents in the town of Lynn until he married Arlene Lindow of the town of Fremont, Chili, on May 18, 1941.

Otto and Arlene started farming northeast of Granton after their marriage until 1947, when they moved to their present farm east of Granton on U.S. Hwy. 10. In addition to farming, Otto was also a carpenter by trade. He worked for Donald Kier of Marshfield, making cabinets and remodeling homes. When the new Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church was built in the late 1950s, Otto was there, helping put the roof on. In the 1960s, Otto worked for a short time at the UBC Lumber Company in Chili and then for Wick Building Systems in Spencer, building mobile homes. After his retirement, he continued his carpentry work by helping family members build garages and remodel their own homes. He built upholstered rocking chairs and wooden crèches for his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. During the last 10 years, he made many small wooden items that were sold at holiday craft shows.

Otto was a member of the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Granton and very active in numerous roles at church, serving as the church cemetery sexton for eight years, holding numerous church offices, president, elder and secretary, an officer of the Granton AAL, an officer of the church's Lutheran Layman's League and a member for many years of the Zion Men's Club. He also served as the delegate to synodical conventions for the church in New Orleans and Kentucky.

Throughout his life, he also was a leader of the Lynn Busy Beaver 4-H Club, the secretary/treasurer for the Lynn Telephone Company and served on the Granton School Board before the schools consolidated in the early 1960's.

Survivors include his wife, Arlene; children, Donna (James) Zwicke, Marshfield, James (Gail) Hasz, Granton, and Vickie (Donald) Schnitzler, Marshfield; seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Surviving siblings are Edna Grass, Wausau, and Albert Hasz, Granton; and many nieces, nephews and cousins. He was preceded in death by an infant sibling, Louis Hasz.

In lieu of flowers, donations to the Lutheran Hour or St. John's Lutheran Church service broadcast at Pittsville are appreciated.

Special thanks to the wonderful nurses and staff of Ministry Health Care Home Hospice.