John H. Thuerman

John H. Thuerman

March 18, 2016. Age 91 years. Preceded in death by his wives Carol Ann Thuerman (nee Martt) and Ruth Loving-Thuerman, his parents Wilfred and Irma Thuerman (nee Poenisch) and Roma Thuerman. Cherished father of Tracey Thuerman, Mark (Paula) Thuerman and Lani Rae Bowen. Loving grandfather of Rachel (Martin) Sevilla, Michael (Fiance’ Samantha Lathrop) Rayeske, Zachary, Alexander and Benjamin Thuerman, and Jonah and Collin Meleski. Further survived by friends.

John graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1946 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. He loved to travel, was an avid fisherman and he loved to write. John retired from Rexnord Corporation – Rex Chain Belt as a mechanical engineer with over 45 years of service.

Family and friends will gather to celebrate John’s life Thursday, March 24, 2016 at the Funeral Home from 3:00 PM until time of the Memorial Service at 4:00 PM.

“Jack” will be missed as the leader of his family. He was an avid fisherman, who started at age five with panfish at lakes near Milwaukee, and as a youth he ascended to walleye, bass, and musky at lakes south of Hayward. As an adult he fished mainly at lakes near to Manitowish Waters, where he caught many walleye and bass for both sport and skillet, plus over fifty legal-size muskies for the sport of it. In later years, he became an advocate for all catch and release fishing.

John learned to play golf at age twelve and became proficient enough to play as a member of the Wauwatosa High School golf team. Later, while studying mechanical engineering at UW-Madison, he played for two years on the varsity golf team and was awarded a letter W. While studying at Madison, he also was very active in student activities including general manager of the Wisconsin Engineer magazine.

After graduation from UW in 1946, John started working as a mechanical engineer for Chain Belt Co. (later Rexnord). He obtained seven design patents for his company and retired in 1992 after 45 years of service, which included a two year stint at a subsidiary company in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

After retiring he took up writing as a hobby, starting simply with short stories involving family members with whom he fished for musky. Encouraged by his family to attempt more serious types of writing, he wrote an essay on church stewardship which was used by his pastor. He found the island of Aruba in 1988 for a vacation and purchased a timeshare apartment in the Divi Dutch Village for the first two weeks in March of each year. An essay on Aruban tourism impressed the editor of the English language newspaper and she published it in a special edition. It also impressed the Aruban people and their government and he began to become known as a respected March visitor.

John followed this success with an essay on the excellent weather of Aruba, which included a song which was sung at an Aruban nightclub. He also created an imaginary Aruban child who stayed in the same kindergarten class every year, and wrote short stories about the child’s exploits.

For his children, he wrote a factual book about his life with their mother in South America, and about the long vacation trip they enjoyed across the South Pacific before the onset of her terminal illness.

Concerned about conditions around the world at the end of the last century and the future of the human race, John started writing about the need for divine assistance and prayed for peace in the Middle East. That thought was expanded into his first major novel titled Siblings, and he followed it with two sequels about how humans will be living 10,000 and 100,000 years in the future. He combined the three novels into one book titled Trilogy and published it.