Obit: Rinka, Chester (1917 - 1986)

 
Contact: Ken
Email: ken@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Rinka, Helke, Obert, McCarr, Gilson, Gammon, Grasamke

----Source: Marshfield News Herald, Marshfield, Wood Co., WI, Fri., 27 June 1986

Rinka, Chester (3 May 1917 - 22 June 1986)

STEVENS POINT - Chester Rinka, 69, Shorewood, died Sun. He was a former Stevens Point resident and an athletic star at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the 1930s.

Services were this morning at Holy Family Church, Whitefish Bay. Burial was in Holy Cross Cemetery.

Mr. Rinka grew up and attended schools in Stevens Point. He was the fourth inductee to UW-SP’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 1970. He played on the Pointer basketball team from 1934-38. He was among leading scorers during those years and was team captain in 1937-38. He played football in 1935-36.

He was graduated from Central State Teachers College in Stevens Point in 1938. He taught and coached at Dorchester High School for 3 ½ years. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II in the Pacific Theater from 1942-46.

Mr. Rinka taught at UW-SP for a short time, then did graduate work at Marquette University. He received his master’s degree from UW-Milwaukee. He began teaching at Shorewood High School in 1946, where he coached baseball and assisted with football and basketball coaching until about 1970.

He married Almira Helke June 14, 1944. She survives.

Other survivors include three daughters, Mrs. Berl (Marilyn) Obert and Jane and Karen Rinka; two sons, John and Robert; four sisters, Claire Ann McCarr, Mrs. Sam (Jean) Gilson of Stevens Point, Mrs. Gene (Mona) Gammon and Rita Grasamke, and seven grandsons.

Memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society.