Donald Edward Watzke Sr.

A son’s Tribute to his Dad: I want to reflect on two key threads of my Dads life, career, and family. First, I want to say that he loved having fun and was a kid at heart. He loved fishing, camping, sports, games, Budweiser and had a dry sense of humor. One Halloween he hand built a haunted house in our basement. He had built a casket out of a refrigerator box, used a bowl of grapes for eye balls, a plate of spaghetti for guts and more. We were all so excited the whole week before Halloween. All of the kids in the neighbored did their trick or treat rounds and then come to our house for the big party. They went through the haunted house and stuck their hands in the bowl of eyeballs, touched the guts and opened the casket where a monster jumped out to scare them. He loved playing cards, especially euchre. He and my grandma would play my aunt and uncle at one of their kitchen tables. They would be putting down a few Budweiser’s and then the fun would begin. My grandma always loved to sprout a few points to agitate my Aunt and Uncle, she was a real pistol. Every time my Dad and Grandma won a big hand, they would dish out some trash talk or reach around the table and high five or hug. After a while the cards would get all sticky from spilt beer and then they would dump corn starch on the cards so they could deal. It would be all over the place. Career: Dad graduated for UW whitewater in 1962 with a degree in accounting a wife and two kids. At whitewater he lived in a 8’ by 30‘ mobile home on the edge of whitewater. He did not have much money, even had to brew his own beer but he said we really enjoyed that experience. He then moved to Wausau to start his career at Wipfli, Ullrich and Company. At that time, you needed to work as a public accountant for1-2 before you could take the CPA examines. He added two more kids in Wausau and then in 1968 took a job in Madison with Certco. He moved to the north side of Madison partially to be closer to Mom’s family in Portage. He moved up through the ranks at Certco, was a VP and became president in 1982. His first directive from the board was to sell the company because it was losing money. He looked over the business, accounting is the language of business, and convinced the board the company could be successful. He turned around the company and it started to grow. He formed a partnership with Woodman’s which led to large growth and also issues with labor unions that he had to resolve. He expanded the Fitchburg warehouse location several times and helped add the new east side warehouse and growth continues to this day. Today Certco services over 200 independent grocery stores throughout Midwest with over 59,000 items, has a store brand called “Shurfine” and currently has just under 1 million square feet of warehouse space. He mentored his replacement Randy who took over as President in 2008 and stayed on as a consultant for a few more years. He continued to stay in contact with current President Amy who told me “she thought the world of Don”. Dad was very loyal to Certco, as kids I remember we could only shop at a Shurfine store even if it meant driving 20 minutes to Waunakee versus 5 blocks to the Kroger’s. He also always wanted to see what was happening at the warehouse. Till the very end whenever he was out, for doctors’ appointments etc. he would have us drive him the backway on spoke and sprocket to see the current expansion project. I was thinking about how Certco and Shurfine were such a perfect career fit for Dad. The Certco warehouse supports a group of independent grocery stores in towns throughout local communities in the Midwest. The brand Shurfine is a good quality low cost product. I remember one time Dad pointed at a can of shurfine peas (peas where his favorite veggie) and said the contents of this can are exactly the same as the contents in this name brand that costs 30% more, due to labeling and advertising costs. What he was saying in his own way is that it is what is on the inside that counts not the external characteristics. I got that message because I experienced it in the way he lived his life, It determined the type of cars he bought, the clothes he wore, the way used his money. He told me once that it was ok to spend more if there was some intrinsic value to the “thing” but otherwise it is all vanity. Family: Even though dad loved Certco family came first. Dad was not a man to express his emotions in words he communicated by his acts. As the pithy expression says, “More is caught then taught” and we all caught a lot. He was there at every life stage to supports use. In any youth activity Dad and Mom were always there. Could be football, basketball, baseball, track, band, teachers conference, athletic banquet, hunter’s safety it did not matter. I recall one time in 7th grade basketball we had an out of town 5PM game in Edgerton. Dad left work early, picked up Mom, drove and made the game warm-ups. I remember in warm-ups looking up at the visitor section and only seeing Dad, Mom, and the bus driver. Dad always loved to encourage the referees in our favor. Dad helped us buy out first cars. He made available to us end of life salesmen cars from Certco for $100. They were solid and dependable and really heated up well in the winter. In college dad paid for everything even personnel expenses. We all graduated college totally debt free. Dad also at each grandchild’s birth started a targeted college savings account which by time of their college had grown to a very large sum. In our marriages the man of few words left us all a letter on life’s wisdom he had obtained. One was do NOT live to close to you parents, you need to NOW focus on your wife/husband. Dad helped us with buying our first homes. He also helped Don and I gain the confidence to take a financial risk to buy a second home as our families grew. Dad showed us a path to faith by his commitment to the church and how he used prayer at some of his lives most difficult moments. Finally, he taught about what it meant to be a good husband and person of faith. Dad faced a huge adversity with Moms over a decade long battle with Parkinson’s. Words cannot do justice to this challenge, you had to experience it to see how it revealed his character. It is something that will never make a history book, newspaper, or twitter feed. As an avid reader (thanks to Dad’s example) of all things spiritual I can state that I have never seen any example of a saint live out Jesus great commandment in John’s gospel “to love one another as I have loved you” any better than the love and compassion he showed to Mom. When I think about a life lived well, a life that matters, In the end its ….  Not what was bought but what was built – I think of Dad and Certco  Not what we got but what we gave – I think of the very large monetary legacy he left that will flow down though many generations in the form of college funds, cars, homes, giving and fun experiences. I plan to use it wisely.  Not our competencies but our character – character is one of those word that is defined by other words. Words like Loyalty, hardworking, honesty, fairness, respect, kindness, trustworthiness, responsibility. All I can say is that Dad checked the box on every one of these definitions of character and we all caught many of them as well. Dads’ life really mattered!!! As a spiritual person I believe birth is not a beginning and death is NOT an end. So, I use the term passing to describe what happened on 8/29/2021. This was a good day to pass since it was Mom and Dad’s anniversary. This life transition is a mystery beyond our knowing. What I do know, I was searching for how to best put into words. I found this bit of wisdom from Helen Keller. “What was once enjoyed and deeply loved We can never lose, For all that we love deeply becomes part of us “ Dad you are a part of Maggie and Bob, You are part of Don, You are part of Susan and You are part of Jacki and Me. Because of that we are all truly, truly very blessed. We love you Dad. PS: I have to tell this little true story of serendipity. As we were moving you out of the Waterford, we had to pack up all of your food items into bags we loaded into a U-Haul. As I was unloading one of the bags a can of “Shurfine” peas fell out onto the ground. That moment put a smile on my face. Jacki later remarked, He was a “Shurfine” Person and Dad. I kept the can of peas and placed it on my wall of honor next to one of the pictures and you and Mom. I took a picture and posted it below. As I am writing this at 3:16AM on 9/1/2021 I looked at the picture and just noticed the note in the lower right corner of the can “ Give Peas a Chance!” that’s awesome.

Don and Judy - Peas in a Pod

Maggie, Don, Mike and Sue I'm so sorry for your loss and am sending hugs and prayers to all of you. Your parents were the best neighbors we could have. The amount of fun that we had growing up would be hard to match. The love and devotion the Don had for Judy was remarkable and something that we are can aspire too. Condolences to the entire family. Ron Jenkins