Herbert C. Deuel
1929-2021
Herbert C. Deuel, 91, of Sheldon passed away on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2021 at Care and Reb of Ladysmith. A memorial service will be held at a later date. Burial will be in the Woodlawn Cemetery in
Sheldon. Telephone of Milwaukee. After merging, he became their equipment manager and also made repairs for three other companies in Wisconsin. During those 10 years, he took a television correspondence course to repair televisions and sold and installed kitchen cabinets. He retired from the phone company in 1989.
Herb was always seeking out new experiences, so during the late 1960s, he and Marty Huhn, another employee of Universal Telephone, headed to Arizona to modify an old switchboard. This heavy equipment had to be airlifted from Phoenix to Soupai, Ariz., a native American reservation at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. He had many stories to tell about that experience.
In his early years he was a volunteer firefighter, village board and Lions Club member. He was also a member of the York-Kolar Post 316 for 61 years.
He lived for snowmobiling. Herb helped form the Sheldon Rough Riders Snowmobile Club where he donated many hours signing and maintaining their trails. He spent over 45 years riding, mainly in Wisconsin and the U.P. of Michigan. He and a friend made a 10 day 2,000 mile trip averaging 200 miles per day back when there were no cell phones to call for help if a breakdown occurred.
Surviving are his wife, Alice of Sheldon; daughters, Bonnie (Walt) Lang of Sheldon and Karen Krizan of Chippewa Falls; grandchildren, Stephanie Koss, Amanda (Eric) DeSmith, Jason (fiancé Lauren) Lang, Chad (Caylyn) Krizan; great-grandchildren, Anna, Blake, Daxton, Ruby and baby girl in May.
He was preceded in death by his parents; and sister, Patricia Knapp; and her husband, Virgil.
The Nash–Jackan Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements.
Herb was born Mar. 20, 1929 in Hannibal, the son of Curtis and Lucile (Dietzman) Deuel. He graduated from Gilman High School in 1947. He was employed by Presto for a short time before returning to Gilman to help his parents with their telephone exchanges in Gilman, Hannibal, Jump River and Sheldon. At that time each exchange had an operator working out of their homes to run the switchboards where calls were transferred from one party to another or to place long distance calls. He did this part time from their Gilman home.
In 1948 he installed a dial switchboard in Gilman, which was the first small town in Wisconsin to have a dial system. In 1950 he attended a dial switchboard school in Ohio and returned to install dial switchboards in the four exchanges.
On May 3, 1952 he married Alice Filipiak in Gilman. One month later he was drafted into the U.S. Army and sent to Germany for most of his two years. He remained in the Army Reserve for another six years.
Upon return, he and Alice moved to Sheldon and purchased the telephone company there which they operated for 10 years before merging with Universal
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