Christopher Hass

Christopher Hass, known to all as Chris, was born in 1947 and lived most of his life in Omaha, Nebraska. He was handicapped from birth by a cognitive disorder, and the doctors told his parents that he should be institutionalized. Instead, through the fierce and indefatigable effort of his mother, he learned to read and write, completed elementary school, and ultimately earned a diploma from Omaha Technical High School. He then went to work at American Linen, a commercial laundry, where he was good-natured, hard-working, and respected by his colleagues. Because his parents Vic and Gladie took him on their many trips, he saw more than most Americans of New England Canada, and the Western U.S. He kept diaries and detailed statistics not only about his travels but also relating to baseball, antique automobiles, and Cornhusker football. He enjoyed ten years of marriage to a co-worker, Linda, whose death plunged Chris into depression and led to his retirement and relocation to Madison, Wisconsin. Since 2012 he lived in a residence in nearby Monona, where he was lovingly cared for by Rebecca Hall-Boelke. Declining health and encroaching mental illness cast a shadow over his final years, but given the burdens Chris bore from birth, it can be said that in most respects he lived a happy and comfortable life. He is survived by his older brother Paul, of Madison, and his sister Sue, of St. Paul, Minnesota. At his death on October 14, 2017, Christopher William Hass was 69 years old.