Paul Robert Wischmeier

Funeral Services for Paul R. Wischmeier will be on Wednesday, July 6, 2016 at 2:30 p.m. at the Wilcox Community Church in Wilcox, Nebraska with Pastors Paul Knott and Craig Cedar officiating. Interment will follow at the Freewater Cemetery, rural Ragan, Nebraska.

Paul Robert Wischmeier, 66 years of age, of Hastings, Nebraska, formerly of Wilcox, passed away on Friday, July 1, 2016 at Bryan Medical Center – East in Lincoln, Nebraska. After a complicated illness, Paul died surrounded by family. Paul was a big man who had a huge impact on his family and friends.

Paul was the youngest of three boys born to Bernice (Bernie) Scott Wischmeier and Ellen Pauline (Zulauf) Wischmeier. From the time he was little, he had a fearless daredevil personality and had many broken bones to show for it. He would regale his family with tales of floating his VW on Harlan County Reservoir, shooting his mother in the backside with a BB gun with Lee Potter as an "innocent" bystander, and spitting peas onto the wall for Glen Potter's amusement. After he rolled his VW onto its top in a ditch, he and Kenny Meyers got out, flipped it back on to its wheels and drove away. Dewey Lienemann recalls Paul discharging a shotgun through the roof of the pickup, camouflaging the hole and hiding the pickup in a building without saying a word. (Their ears rang for days.) He laughed mercilessly while pulling a splinter from David Lienemann's south side after a catastrophic trial run in a home-fabricated vehicle. His friends from the Pleasant View Community south of Wilcox, were his friends for life, and newer friends at Mary Lanning were an added joy. Paul could turn a simple 10 minute story into an hour long saga. He was a man of many words. Paul had a furious love for family, God and country.

Paul finally had to grow up, so he moved into a house in Lincoln, Nebraska with David and Dewey Lienemann. While there, he met Kaye Moline, the love of his life. They married in 1972 and were married 44 years at the time of his death. He and Kaye were the proud parents of two children: John Paul and Christine Kaye. He farmed the family homestead until a farm accident in 1984 prompted him to find another profession. He attended school at Hastings Community College and became a biomedical technician, working at Mary Lanning Hospital until retiring in 2014. He was a fervent believer in and defender of God, America and his family.

He was preceded in death by his parents; grandson, Dylan; his brother, Roger and wife Wilma; father-in-law, Roger Moline; mother-in-law, Joy Berquist; and sister-in-law, Joyce Anderson.

He leaves to mourn his passing; his wife, Kaye of Hastings; son, John Wischmeier and special friend, Shani Jennings of Hastings, daughter, Christine Franklin and husband, Steve of Lincoln; brother, Richard and his wife, Elaine of Central City, Nebraska; father-in-law, Lloyd Berquist of Holdrege; three grandchildren: Linea, Daniel and Kayelynn Wischmeier and their mother, Leslee of Hastings; along with a host of other family and friends.

Visitation will be held on Tuesday, July 5, 2016 from 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. with the family greeting from 6:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. at the Bauer-Torrey & Mach Funeral Home in Wilcox.

A memorial has been established in Paul's honor and will be designated at a later date.

Expressions of caring and kindness can be sent to the family at www.nelsonbauerfh.com.

The Bauer-Torrey & Mach Funeral Home in Wilcox is in charge of the arrangements.