Harold Lortscher

LT. CMDR. HAROLD G. ("HAL") LORTSCHER, 91, of Denver, CO, died Tuesday, July
17, 2007 after being admitted for 48 hours to Swedish Hospital in Denver,
CO. His death was a result of waging a long and very determined battle with
cancer. He was born January 28, 1916, on the family farm located in Berwick
between Bern and Sabetha, KS. He was one of two children of Swiss immigrant
parents, Gottfried Lortscher and Verena Knutti Lortscher of Spiez,
Switzerland. Because he spoke mainly "Schweizerdeutsch" when he began
school in a one-room schoolhouse near Sycamore Springs, he was required by
the Sabetha schools to study English during the summer before being promoted
to the second grade. He eventually graduated third in his class from
Sabetha High School in 1933, participating in music, debate and sports. He
began his college studies at Kansas State University (at that time, Kansas
State Agricultural College) and in 1935 was appointed to the U. S. Naval
Academy, Class of 1939, pursuing undergraduate work in Mechanical
Engineering. He went on to receive a B.S. in Commerce (Business
Administration) from Kansas State and was elected to the scholastic
honorary, Phi Beta Phi. In 1940 he graduated from Naval Supply Officers
School at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. with the rank of Ensign.
On September 15, 1940, he married Emma Marcille Poppe of Bern, KS, and began
active duty, succeeding to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He served in
the North Atlantic, New York City and Southwest Pacific doing submarine
tender, battleship and naval air station duty.

Because of his father's untimely death in an automobile accident in 1941, he
decided not to become a career military officer but instead was honorably
discharged while continuing to serve for 22 years in the Naval Reserves. He
entered private business in 1947, managing three family farms and
establishing the Lortscher Locker & Meat Plant in Auburn, NE. Three
children were born, and the family of five had the singular honor of
representing the State of Nebraska in The All-American Family Conference &
Competition held for the first and only time in Miami Beach, FL in 1957.
The family's talent offering, orchestrated by Poppe, the family's music
director, was a barbershop quintet version of "Coney Island Baby". That
same year, the family relocated to Denver, CO, where he worked from
1957-1967 as a buyer/materiel manager for Martin-Marietta and also as a
senior buyer for Coors Container Corp. and Honeywell, Inc. He retired in
1974 to become a successful equities and real estate investor, which he was
still actively engaged in on the morning of his death. On 7/17/07, the day
of his passing, the Dow Jones Industrials Average touched 14,000 points so
he left this life on a stock market record high.

He enjoyed skiing in Breckenridge, where the family owned a condominium,
golfing and world traveling. He was a 50-year member of Emmanuel United
Methodist Church in Denver and was also a member of the Denver Consistory of
the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry and the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni
Association. He is survived by his wife of nearly 67 years, "Poppe"; two
sons, Dr. Randall H. Lortscher and his wife, Marcial Gail Murphy, of Denver,
and Dr. Loren C. Lortscher and his partner, James Couto, of New York City; a
daughter, Marcia L. Ragonetti of Denver; one grandson, Peter T. Ragonetti of
Brooklyn, NY; his sister, Velasca Lortscher Bauer of San Luis Obispo, CA;
and five nephews: Richard Bauer, Steven Bauer, Mark Bauer, Roger Minger and
Lynn Minger. All who knew Hal recognized and now salute his unique
character, rare sense of humor, insatiable curiosity and true grit.

A memorial service will be held on Monday, August 27, at 10:30 AM in the
chapel at Sycamore Springs Resort. After a fellowship reception there,
inurnment of his cremains will follow at 1 PM at the Lortscher family plot
in the Sabetha Cemetery, accompanied by full military honors. Memorial
contributions may be made in his name to any charity or to The Marcia Murphy
Lortscher Vacation Kidney Dialysis Center of the Rockies, part of the YMCA
of the Rockies' Snow Mountain Ranch in Granby, CO.