WWII vet to get diploma

Wilhelmi still

working at age 79

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

BROWN COUNTY-- A World War II U.S. Navy veteran who helped build Sleepy Eye Public School and the Orchid Inn will graduate from high school this year.

Paul Wilhelmi, 79, of Sleepy Eye, will receive his honorary high school diploma at 7 p.m. tonight in the Franklin Elementary School Library during the Franklin School Board meeting.

His great-granddaughter, Tiffany Wilhelmi, daughter of Dale and Laura Filzen of New Ulm, will graduate from New Ulm High School this spring. She plans to major in pre-law this fall at the University of Minnesota at Duluth.

Several years ago, Wilhelmi applied for his diploma through the Brown County Veterans Service Office.

Paul Wilhelmi got an eighth-grade education at St. Michael's Catholic School in Morgan. He began working for farmers in 1939. He hauled livestock to South St. Paul before he joined the U.S. Navy in 1943.

Wilhelmi told an amusing anecdote about his trips to the South St. Paul Stockyards.

"Times were tough in those days, Wilhelmi said. "I worked my way up from nothing. I've done about everything you can think of. I'm a jack of all trades, master of none. During the winter time, I'd bale flax-straw. I had to pay rent to stay at home. We'd drive to South St. Paul, unload, wash the truck, sleep in the bunkhouse, wake up the next morning, pick up freight in St. Paul. Most of the time, I'd get back as far as Glencoe and the boss would be there with another load of livestock."

Wilhelmi and his wife Lucy celebrate their 49th wedding anniversary next month. She worked as a waitress at the Orchid Inn for more than 20 years.

After Wilhelmi was drafted into the Navy, he sailed on a rescue-and-salvage ship to Hawaii, Saipan, the Philippines, and off the coast of Australia.

Once, he rode out a typhoon in the South Pacific. His ship was hit by a dead bomb that just missed its fuel tanks. It was towed and tied up off the coast of Australia.

Another anecdote.

"We sat out there, tied to the end of a buoy for two months," Wilhelmi said. "Hell no, they wouldn't let us on shore. Some of the guys snuck off the ship and got to shore and had a little to drink."

His ship was towed back to Pearl Harbor and dry-docked for four months.

Wilhelmi advanced to ship's cook second class. He was offered advancement to chief if he stayed in because the chief and first class petty officer cooks were not on board.

He opted to leave the Navy when a telegram informed him his five-year-old sister was dying. Forced to wait a week and a half to get a plane out of Hawaii, he missed his sister's funeral.

Wilhelmi worked as a mechanic for five years in Morgan. He got a seasonal job with Del Monte Corp. in 1949 and moved to Sleepy Eye. While there, he and his brother in law "Blackie" Schultz helped build Sleepy Eye Public School.

Wilhelmi worked as an assistant manager for National Food Store in Sleepy Eye for five years. He later worked at Coast-to-Coast Hardware and Ace Hardware.

His next job was assistant manager and janitor at the Orchid Inn after it opened up its new bottle club.

After seven years at the Orchid Inn, Wilhelmi began working for Sleepy Eye carpenter Romie Weiss. He stayed connected to the Orchid Inn, tending bar on weekends and helping build its ballroom.

"When Romie and I started building at the Orchid Inn, we were told it was just a kitchen addition," Wilhelmi said. "About the time we got that done, we were told to start the ballroom. Ron Sellner and I laid every concrete block on the south end except the brick."

He was a route salesman for Hermel Candy Company of Mankato for 22 years, until 1985, when he turned 62.

Wilhelmi couldn't stand not working.

"I fooled around and fooled around, then worked for the Del Monte cleanup crew. He cleaned up the Del Monte farm and machine shop in the winter time until he was laid off," Wilhelmi said. "I laid around until I decided I couldn't take it anymore and went to work again. You got all that?"

"You ever hear of anybody that had so many jobs?" his wife asked.

He still works five to six hours a day, five days a week and loves it. He cleans offices for Christensen Family Farms cell units near Sleepy Eye, Comfrey and Klossner and works one day a week at Christensen feed mill, east of Sleepy Eye.

"Hell, I can't stop working," Wilhelmi said.