Lee George WACHENHEIM

WACHENHEIM, BOCHUM, PATTERSON, WALTZING, MYER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 9/22/2006 at 12:44:11

Lee George Wachenheim, 76, died Monday, July 2, 2001 at his home in Belmond. Funeral services were held Friday, July 6 at the Belmond United Methodist Church with Pastor Mike Druhl officiating. Military rites were conducted by the Belmond Honor Guard at the church. His body was cremated. Special music was provided by Pastor JoAn Skyrme, soloist, and Maxine Jenison, organist. Ushers were Harold Baker and Bill Walrod. A memorial service will be held Saturday, July 14 at Ahlgrim Funeral Home in Elmhurst, Illinois with Rev. Ermalou Roller officiating.

Lee, the son of Walter and Marie Bochum Wachenheim, was born February 22, 1925, in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up there and graduated from Chicago's Lane Technical High School in 1943. He entered the U.S. Army in 1943 and served in the European Theater with the 488th Engineers Light Pontoon Company during World War II. On April 15, 1946, he received his honorable discharge. After military service Lee worked in a foundry in Chicago for a short time before enrolling at Iowa State Teachers College in 1947. He played football and wrestled for ISTC. Lee was a member of the 1950 ISTC national championship wrestling squad. He played all but 2 minutes and 9 seconds of every ISTC football game over a three-year period. Lee graduated from ISTC on June 2, 1951. He was inducted into the University of Northern Iowa Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999. On June 3, 1951, Lee was married to Virginia "Ginny" Patterson in Chariton. They made their home in Corning where Lee taught, coached, and starting the wrestling program in 1954. Later in 1954 they moved to Guttenberg where he started the football program. Lee received his masters degree in Educational Administration from Colorado State College of Education in Greeley in 1954. In 1955 Lee and Ginny moved to Elmhurst, Illinois where he would teach and coach at York High School for 33 years. While at York he taught physical education and driver education and became director of the driver education program. He coached football, wrestling and sophomore baseball and retired in 1988. After retirement Lee and Ginny lived in West Des Moines for a time before moving to Belmond in 2000 to be close to their daughter. Lee was a member of the Belmond V.F.W. and the Phi Delta Kappa educational fraternity. In addition to being a UNI Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, Lee was named a Little All-American in collegiate football in 1950, to Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities in 1951, and to Who's Who in American Education in 1954. Lee was a long time member of the Christ United Methodist Church in Elmhurst and belonged to the Valley United Methodist Church in West Des Moines.

Lee was preceded in death by his parents. Survivors include his wife, Virginia "Ginny"; one son, James Mark and his wife, Kimberly, of Oxford, Ohio; one daughter, Lee Ann Waltzing and her husband, John, of Belmond; four grandchildren, Scott and Sarah Waltzing and Gretchen and Hannah Wachenheim; one brother, James N. and his wife, Mary, of Libertyville, Illinois and two nieces, Mary Elise and Anne Myer and her husband, Evan.

July 10, 2001
©Belmond Independent 2001