John Wollack's Obituary
John N. Wollack, of Spring Lake, 95, died on January 30 in Perrysburg, Ohio. He was born on December 24, 1910, in Platte, Minnesota, the third of thirteen children of Nicholas Wollack and Josephine Namyst Wollack. He grew up on the family’s farm in Royalton, Minnesota, where he milked cows, transported cream by horse and buggy to the creamery, helped his mother with bread baking, and assisted in fieldwork. He remembered working with a neighbor harvesting with the first combine in the area. He attended the local district one-room school and walked the country roads to attend classes at Royalton High School.He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1934 and completed the coursework for teaching certification. In addition to pursuing his studies, he played football at Notre Dame. He remembered Knute Rockne’s last year there, when, as a freshman, he practiced under Rockne’s assistant, Hunk Anderson. He also told of serving early weekday morning masses for another illustrious figure in the University’s history, Father (University President and later Cardinal) John O’Hara. He earned a master’s degree in educational administration from the University of Minnesota and did graduate coursework at the University of Michigan. He remembered his first job out of college during the Depression as one of his hardest, shoveling coal as a fireman on the Great Lakes freighter Mathiott. Following graduate studies at the University of Minnesota, he launched out on his preferred course of a teaching career, which began at the high school in Elkton, South Dakota. His classes there included algebra, geometry, chemistry, physics, history, and civics, and extra-curricular responsibilities were coaching football, basketball, baseball, and track. He moved from there to a position at Wright High School in Ironwood, Michigan, where he taught algebra, history, and civics and coached football and basketball. In Ironwood he met the woman he would marry, an English teacher at the time, the former Ruth Lucile Hunt. The couple was married sixty-two years, until her death four years ago.In Muskegon, he worked in industry as a machinist at Morton Manufacturing Company and Sealed Power, as a machine repairman at Campbell, Wyant, and Campbell, and as Safety Director for Continental Motors. In 1948 he began a twenty-six-year association with Grand Haven Stamped Products Company, where he served as Plant Superintendent, and, from 1972 to 1974, as Vice President of Manufacturing.He maintained a lively interest in the University of Notre Dame and its football teams. During retirement years he and his wife enjoyed bicycling and spending winter months in Florida. He devoted long, pleasant, outdoor hours to his lifelong interest in gardening.According to Ecclesiastes, “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens, / A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot . . . .” While his passing brings tears, his life gave joy. His life of planting shows a hope that he leaves us to nurture. He leaves to cherish his memory two daughters: Bette Charlene Werner of Temperance, MI, and Sharon Patrice Johnson of Ann Arbor, MI. He is predeceased by brothers and sisters Louis, Walter, Ben, Michael, Alex, Mary, Ambrose, Alois, Loretta, and Helen. Surviving him are an older brother, Edward, and his youngest brother, Claude. Descendents are grandchildren Gregory Werner, Kristin Werner Kozma, Cheryl Werner Lohmeyer, Julianne Werner Orbin, Stephanie Johnson Harrigan, Ross Johnson, and Brent Johnson and great-grandchildren Blake Werner, Claire Werner, Kara Kozma, Lukas Lohmeyer, and Chloe Lohmeyer.
What’s your fondest memory of John?
What’s a lesson you learned from John?
Share a story where John's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with John you’ll never forget.
How did John make you smile?