Wallace Wachholz, Jr.

Wallace Richard Wachholz, Jr., 70, died September 30, 2013.  He was born in Milwaukee, WI August 4, 1943, to Virginia Louise Davis and Wallace Richard Wachholz Sr.  He graduated from Menomonee Falls High School in 1961.  Following high school, he entered the Air Force and later became an honored missile crew member for the Atlas missile program at Warren Air Force base in Cheyenne, WY.   As recognition for his teams accomplishments they were awarded the opportunity to launch one of the first US satellites into space. He later finished his military services as a radar operator in Greenland.  He met Nancy Kay Fritz in Cheyenne, WY in 1963 and was married in August of 1964. Their son James was born in July of 1965.  That same year he was honorably discharged and the family moved to Milwaukee, WI where he worked for a short period in the trucking business with his father Wallace Richard Wachholz Sr. The following year he started in the insurance industry where he spent the rest of his career. Given his love for the Rocky Mountains, the family moved to Denver, CO in 1972. In August 1973 their daughter Virginia was born and in 1978 they moved to Rapid City, SD. He continued his work there before retiring and while building his love for remodeling cars and art. Following his wife's passing in 2004 he moved to Arizona in 2005. He loved Arizona and all the beauty and life it presented. He had done some painting when he was younger and used this time to replicate nature through painting landscapes in Colorado, Wyoming, and Arizona and was a member of the Westbrook Village Fine Arts Association. Survivors include his son James Wachholz, his wife Cynthia and their children Elizabeth and Peter in Denver. Also his daughter Virginia Morris, her husband Wade Morris and their children Bryanna and Alyssa in Seattle. Memorial service will be held 11 a.m. on October 25, 2013 at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, 23029 North Cave Creek Rd., Phoenix, AZ. Memorials are preferred to the American Cancer Society www.cancer.org .