William Leon Guerin

William Leon Guerin, BarabooIn the early morning of Friday, September 12, 2014, after a short illness, William "Bill" Leon Guerin died peacefully in his sleep, comforted by his wife, at his home in Baraboo, WI. Despite being a non-smoker, the cause was cancer of the lung. Bill was 85 years old. The oldest of two children, he was born in Milwaukee, WI on February 21, 1929 to Dr. Leon Henry Guerin and Thelma Cecille (nee Ladwig) Guerin. He is survived by his wife of 63 years Katherine Francis (nee Milnamow) Guerin and sister Elizabeth Joan O'Reilly Blank of Phoenix. Bill and Kay have four surviving children: William Scott of Brooklyn, NY, James Steven of Boulder, CO, Susan Elizabeth Tracy of Eagle ID, and Charles Leon of Eden Prairie, MN. Grandchildren include Lily (daughter of Scott and Jane Dodds), Alex and Jack (sons of Jim and Mollie McGill) Stephanie and Kelly (daughters of Chuck and Jane Gebert) and Mac and Bill Tracy (sons of Sue and Tom Tracy). Bill's is a descendant of John Guerin and Mary Ann Wilson who moved to Little Wolf, WI in 1865 from Ovid, NY in the Finger Lakes. Their son Peter Henry had three children with Joanna Heur: Freeman, Bill's father Leon, and Ruby. Earlier ancestors lived through the Revolutionary War in Morristown, NJ where Washington camped on Guerin land in Jockey Hollow. Before that, Thomas Guerin and his brothers, Huguenot refugees from St. Nazaire, France, landed near Charleston, South Carolina in about 1690. A lifelong lover of the outdoors, Bill spent his childhood swimming, fishing, and sailing on Lake Michigan. He even spent a summer in an Oregon logging camp with cousin Jim Grootemaat. His father Leon instilled a love and respect for nature on hunting and fishing trips and these Bill also instilled in his family. He grew up with dogs and we always had one around the house that he was unsuccessfully trying to train to hunt. However, while the "boys" would go out with bow or gun on weekends, Sue's November birthday often seem to be missed with opening day of the deer season. He was a natural athlete and an excellent skier and sailor. All of the children were on a boat before they could walk and skis when they could. Family trips often included sailing Taob ("boat" spelled backwards) or Spin out to see the Fourth of July fireworks on the lake, shooting clay pigeons thrown by hand, or racing across the lake in the Milwaukee to Ludington Harbor race which Spin won outright in 1971. The whole family of six would sail (and camp on) the boat from Milwaukee to Door County for a number of summers. There are so many fond family memories but highlights include a ski trip to New Hampshire in the early sixties when Jim and Scott came down with chicken pox and it was bitterly cold, the '69 Montreal Expo camping trip, the trip out west when we were photographed for nationwide Coleman camping ads, and for his 60^th birthday, we all met in Sun Valley to ski and see the place where mom and dad honeymooned. Most recently, before he fell ill, he and Kay came to New York City to see a performance of Blood Wedding in a set that granddaughter Lily designed. In his youth, he attended Milwaukee Country Day School, and later Lawrence College in Appleton, WI where he met Kay. He received his degree in architecture from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis-St Paul and worked in several Milwaukee-based firms until setting out on his own. Coincidentally, or maybe not, his first office was in the basement of a building his father's ophthalmology clinic was in some years before. Bill's many friends will remember him as outgoing, willing to lend a hand, and fun loving. Our childhood was filled parties at home, visits to their friends, holiday dinners, and family meals where wild game was often on the menu. These fun times included a Theater in the Ground troupe of friends who performed plays in each other's basements; a very 60's scene! In 1961 he designed and built our family's home in Mequon on Oriole Lane. It still stands as one of his best and most modern architectural designs and was influenced strongly by the California modernists and Japanese architecture having spent part of his Marine Corps service in Hokkaido, Japan in the early 1950's. Other notable buildings he designed include the Cedarburg Bank, and the comfort garden at the Hospital in Baraboo. Bill and Kay moved to Baraboo in 1985 where he took a position as head architect at Mid State Engineering. A long time member of the Kiwanis Club, he also volunteered on zoning boards etc. He love to read, listen to classical music, and he was an avid and serious photographer who worked with the Wisconsin Historical Society to photograph rare and endangered buildings throughout the state. He was fond of foraging for wild mushrooms (spending a night in the hospital at least twice) and for a land-locked Wisconsin lad, he developed a strong taste for clams, oysters, and seafood in general. He wasn't much of a joke teller, (no telling where Chuck got his abilities from) liked his liquor brown (a little too much some say), and was sensitive, creative, and handy. He could draw, design, and build most anything and gave those skills to Scott and Jim in particular. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, September 17, 2014 at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, 300 East Street in Baraboo. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, September 16, 2014 from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. at the Redlin Funeral Home, 401 Madison Avenue, in Baraboo and on Wednesday from 11 a.m. until the time of Mass at the church. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Baraboo Public Library or a charity of your choice. Our family wishes to thank his doctors and home hospice attendants for the graceful and attentive care he received in his last days. We also thank our Aunt Betty and cousins Tom and Jim who were able to see him the day before he passed.