Roy Stenzel

Stenzel, Roy
McFarland-Roy Stenzel age 67 of Mc Farland passed away peacefully at his home on Tuesday, September 13, 2011, after a short battle with cancer. Roy was born June 5, 1944 in Menominee Falls. He was the son of Earl and Norma Stenzel. Roy graduated from Menominee Falls High School in 1962. He then went to Pharmacy school at UW-Madison and graduated in 1967. Shortly after graduation Roy met Sue Slowey. Sue and Roy were united in marriage on April 27, 1974. Roy and Sue had one son Tim who was born in 1976. Roy worked as a pharmacist for over 40 years with the majority of his career at K-mart. He enjoyed camping and spending time with family and friends. Roy is survived by his wife Sue of Mc Farland; his son Tim (Shannon) Stenzel of Chicago; his grandson Owen Stenzel of Chicago; his mother in law Julie Slowey of Westfield; brother in law Tim (Sue) Slowey of Westfield; sister in laws Kay (Gary) Nigbor and Joan (Bill) McCartney both of Westfield; and many nieces, nephews and friends. He was preceded in death by his parents Earl and Norma Stenzel and his father in law Robert Slowey.
A memorial service will be held at the Cress Funeral Home in McFarland on Friday, September 16, 2011 at 3:30 pm. The family will greet friends there from 1:30 pm until the time of service.
In lieu of plants and flowers memorials can be made to the Henry Vilas Zoo or to an education fund for his grandchildren.

Cress Funeral Service
5801 Hwy 51
McFarland 608-838-0655
www.CressFuneralService.com


Eulogy from Roy's Memorial Service:


Good Afternoon. For those of you that don't know me I'm Amy Knox a good friend of the family. Some of you may also know me as Fiddy. I met Sue, Roy and Tim about 25 years ago. A lot of great memories were made over those years. We are all here this afternoon to honor Roy and the great person that he was. He loved to share great stories and have a good time. He was the best listener you could ever find.

I would like to start off by explaining the last year of Roy's life to you. Roy was faced with several health issues over the past year. Some of you were maybe upset that you didn't know of Roy's struggles, but it was something that was kept quiet to protect Roy's dignity. Roy had just recently been diagnosed with cancer - to be more specific he had a carsanoid tumor on his liver. He had been taking some shots monthly to help slow the progression of the tumor. He recently saw a specialist who gave the family the exact diagnosis. The specialist gave Roy 3-6 months to live, which was cut short in just two weeks. This caught everyone off guard including the hospice staff. I was very fortunate as I had just spent several days with Sue and Roy. After spending Sunday to Tuesday with Roy, I have to tell you that I was very relieved to get the phone call from Sue shortly after he died. I know this may sound a little insensitive, but Roy as we all knew him had disappeared. If you hadn't seen him, he had lost a significant amount of weight and had some memory issues. This was all really starting to take a toll on Sue as she was his primary care giver which was very demanding. Despite Roy's worsening illness Roy never did grumble or complain - a rare characteristic for a man - sorry guys!

I have asked several of you this week what are some words you would use to describe Roy. The following words were brought up...Dessert Buddy (Roy loved dessert), easy going, fatherly, genuine, giggly, great listener, jolly, observant, quiet, sincere and soft spoken. Who couldn't love a guy with those characteristics? I would like to take some time to reflect back on Roy's life over the past 67 years that will allow some of these characteristics to shine through. Roy was born on June 5th 1944. He was the only child of Earl and Norma Stenzel. He graduated from Menominee Falls High School in 1962. He then went on to Pharmacy school at UW-Madison. After graduating from pharmacy school in 1967 he met Sue Slowey....the love of his life. They got married in 1974 and two years later had their one and only son Tim. Tim was the absolute pride and joy of Sue and Roy's life. Roy would come home from work when Tim was little and would want to know exactly what Tim had done while Roy was at work. Roy had a very successful career as a practicing pharmacist. He worked in the pharmacy business for over 40 years. It was something that he really enjoyed. He always wanted to know every medicine I was taking and what the dose was. It was always comforting to get his opinion on things. He spent the majority of his career at K-mart in Janesville. He made a lot of friends through his clientele. Many of these people just felt comforted by Roy and felt they could ask him anything. A few short years ago Roy was so excited to me Shannon Fix, Tim's future wife. Roy was thrilled for them. He didn't think things could get any better until just over a year ago when Tim and Shannon had baby Owen. Roy thought his life was now complete and things couldn't be better.

Roy really was one of the greatest guys I have ever known. My mom, younger sister and I lived with the Stenzel's in Milton for about six months. It was a very memorable part of my life. Roy really became a dad to all of us. Roy and I remained close right up to the day he died. I sat in the living room Tuesday morning and chatted with him, when I left Tuesday I had no idea that would be my last conversation with him.

Something I associate with Roy for my entire life was going on Adventures. Roy was always ready and willing to do anything. Roy would always try anything at least once and possibly twice with a little convincing. As kids Roy would always take days off to take Tim, cousin Sam, I and others on Adventures. I can't tell you how many times Roy took us to Great America and he was always a trooper. He would do everything we would do and ride every ride we rode. One of the best adventure stories that was recalled this week was when he took us to Noah's Ark in Wisconsin Dells. We had been going down some chute slides into the pool when Tim suddenly noticed this zip line adventure. Tim convinced all of us that we could do this. Roy was the first to go. He sat down on the ledge, grabbed the handle and went to leave the platform and there was a sudden ker sploosh. Roy dropped straight down 8 feet into the pool. It was one giant belly flop. The life guards panicked, but as many of you can probably guess Roy came up laughing and wanting to know how high the splash went. You could always count on Roy for a good laugh.

When we would go out on Adventure days with Roy, we would often end up at a drive thru. This was always an experience. Roy was such a quiet soft spoken guy he never wanted to place the order into the speaker. We would sometimes have to shout from the back seat and place our own order. He could never decide what he wanted. He would often piggy back on one of our orders and just holler out times two. We never knew what was actually going to be in our bag when we got it at the window! The best part of the story would come when we got to the window and had to pay the bill. Roy was always a chubby happy guy and had a hard time getting his wallet out of his back pocket. He would lean forward and try to grab it. Once again he would inevitably start laughing and would have a harder time getting the wallet. The worker at the window would say that will be $10.19 and Roy would say yeah...just a minute. He would laugh harder and made it even harder to get the wallet out. It was something you had to witness to fully appreciate. Whenever we left the drive up windows there was always a long line behind us!

I went on my last adventure with Roy on Monday. Sue had gone off to work for the day and he and I had planned to spend the day together. We went for a drive and drove around Lake Kegonsa a place we had spent many hours as kids. We went past Quam's where they had their pontoon docked for a year. We drove around through the state park and checked out campsites and the boat landing. After we drove around for a few hours and laughed, joked, etc. We headed to Culver's for lunch. Culver's was something that Roy really loved. I think he may have single handly kept Culver's in McFarland operating over the past two years. I think everytime I came to visit in the past year we had at least one meal at Culver's. A Culver's grilled cheese and Pepsi were something he really liked. I have to admit I did get a sick feeling on Monday when he didn't eat but a bite of his grilled cheese and only a sip of his Pepsi. He told me that the Pepsi didn't taste good anymore. Pepsi is something Roy had drank for all the 25 years I knew him.

A sampling of some other great stories that were shared about Roy this week.

� His favorite soft drink was Pepsi.

� His favorite cocktail was a Windsor Manhattan.

� His favorite food was ANY kind of dessert.

� Roy loved his furry friends over the years. Some of you may have been fortunate enough to know Benny, Barney, Scruffy, Misty, Pywacket, Tucker, Casey or Fletcher.

� Just a few short years ago when Sue and Roy's friend Deb was staying with them for a few weeks....Deb's dog Dixie snuck out on Roy. Can anyone guess how he got the dog back? He used Casey the cat as bait!! Can't you just see him do this.

� How about the time he was driving home from Portage after having dinner with his-in-laws and he was pulled over after a few manhattans by Officer Jensen. He hopped out of the car grabbed the cat and said officer I only have two blocks to go and I have my cat in the car. Amazingly enough the story worked and he escaped to the house. Pretty darn good story for a quiet guy!!

� Roy was an absolutely fantastic listener. The best you could find.

� Sue and Roy enjoyed many Wisconsin Badger Football games and tailgate parties over the years.

� When Sue was in graduate school she recalled a story of when she had brought some friends home with her after a football game. Roy had been working all day and missed out on the festivities. He woke Sue up and said Sue Ann I don't care that you have people here in the house, but could you at least tell me who they are?

� When Tim was young he and Roy would go and see multiple movies in a day....sometimes up to 3 movies and then they would come home and play Siskel and Ebert.

� Many of you may recall seeing Roy laugh pretty hard and he would just shake.

� Roy loved the motorhome and had the opportunity to go on many trips and visits with lots of us here today. Roy especially liked trips to Tom's Campground near Dodgeville.

� Roy's 50th birthday party was another great adventure. There are pictures of it on the photo board. Our families rented a limo and went from Milton to Lake Geneva. Roy popped out of the sunroof several times. There were a drink or two involved and we even had to stop at liquor store in Lake Geneva to pick up some Jagermiester. Roy loved to have a good time.

� Sue and Roy had many fabulous trips over the years. A few in particular.... Seattle....Roy especially loved the guys that threw the fish at the Pike Street Market. Germany...Roy was German and after spending a week there he said I can't possibly eat one more bite of German food. Ireland....This is where he was referred to as Saint Roy. He drove the three women around...Sue, Aunt Ronnie and his mother in law Julie. As you can imagine he was a trooper on yet one more adventure.

� Roy allowed Tim to drive at a young age. He would often left Tim drive around the subdivision in Milton.

� We had many dinners at the Buckhorn Supper Club on Lake Koshknong.

� Family members recall when Roy would be heard say Bulletin, Bulletin.

� Roy was unfortunate as a child as he had Polio.

� Sue and Roy had gotten a hot tub one winter when they lived in Milton. They thought it was the greatest thing. It was placed on the deck in Milton one February day. Sue and Roy mixed a drink and hopped in. They thought they were in heaven, snowflakes were falling down...it was perfect. They called my parents to come join them. They brought along my little sister who became the bartender for them. Keep in mind my sister Liz was probably only 10. It didn't take long and they all realized that the alcohol and hot tub weren't the best of combinations.

� Roy borrowed some pants from his brother in law Tim and rather than paying a rental fee for the pants...he kept the $10 that were in the pocket. Roy really was a smart guy!!

� At his niece Julie's wedding, he had a few drinks and stumbled a bit and scrapped up his knees. Once again you can just hear him laughing about this.

� Something Roy really enjoyed after retirement was working as a volunteer. In particular he really enjoyed his time at the Henry Vilas Zoo, working as a carousel operator. He loved to pick up an extra shift at the zoo as he liked it so much.

� One of Sue's favorite things about Roy was that he was always ready to go somewhere. Sue would say Roy what do you want to do for dinner....Roy would say oh lets go out. He loved to go out for dinner and drink....something that hadn't happened for a few months.

� Roy had two memorable experiences on houseboat trips. One trip was with the Stenzels and my family. We rented a houseboat on the Mississippi. We were docked one night having a great bonfire when we saw a barge coming up river. It was a fantastic site. Roy had the great idea for all of us to wave to the barge....well let's just say those barge drivers are still laughing. They shined there light on us waving and we got bombarded by about 10,000 may flies. They were several inches thick on the houseboat and you could just hear them crackling in the fire. They were hitting the houseboat in such force you would have thought it was hailing!! It was disgusting, but has provided laughs for many years. The second story is when Sue, Roy, Bob, Julie, Joan, Bill and some neighbors went on a houseboat trip. Well Roy and his brother in law Bill climbed up on the top deck of the houseboat and they decided to moon MN and WI at the same time. What a hoot. The real question is whose idea was this Roy or Bill?

� Roy bought a lot of great items on his day off while watching TV. Yes Roy got suckered into many items on QVC. Sue would get home and Roy would be so excited to tell of his purchases. Sue would say Roy do you seriously think that will work? Roy would say well it worked on TV!!

� Tim recalled once when he and Roy tried to make cookies while Sue was at work. Roy decided to use double butter. They were great tasting, but a little thin. From then on they often just bought packaged cookies that they sliced off and baked. If Sue was lucky there was one left for her when she got home.

� When Roy would visit the Slowey Farms in Westfield he always wanted to check out the new equipment. Tim recalled stories of sitting on his dad's lap being able to drive the Bobcat at the farm.

� A few years ago when Roy had received underwear for Christmas at the Slowey Christmas....they had instituted a rule that they had to model. Roy being the character that he was...disappeared...came back and was sporting his new briefs over his pants! He was always good for a laugh.

� On the 4th of July this year Roy and family went to the Henry Vilas Zoo. A place Roy really loved. If you didn't get a chance to see there is a great picture of Roy, Tim and Owen riding the train at the zoo. What a great memory.

� Just about a month ago, Sue, Roy, Barb and I ventured to Milwaukee to go to Irish Fest. Roy was a real trooper. We walked just about every inch of the SummerFest grounds. Roy really did have a good time.

� About six weeks ago Sue, Roy, Dale and Barb went on an adventure to the Dells. Roy told me how much fun they had riding the Wisconsin Dells Ducks and that their boat driver was in her first season of driving. Roy said she was very funny and a good driver.

� Roy never wanted to miss a party or a get together. He really enjoyed people and having a good time.

� He was a man of few words, but when he talked he almost always had something very important to say or something funny. A great story to share about the man of few words....happened at Tim and Shannon's wedding. They had the parents speak. Shannon's dad got up and said what a great couple they were etc. Roy got up, tapped the microphone and said......errrrrrrrr...buzzzzzzz. Followed by a bunch of laughter. There is yet another great picture of this on the photo boards.

I know I have only touched on a few parts of Roy's life. I could stand up here and tell stories and talk for days, but it is about time for all of us to share stories and celebrate Roy's life back at the house. Sue on behalf of Roy, I would like to say thank you for being so kind, caring and compassionate to him throughout his illness, I know he really appreciated it. I know there were many tough times, but you did an amazing job. You took the vows for better or for worse very seriously. Roy thought the world of you and Tim. The two most important people in his life. He couldn't have more proud of either of you. I would like to end with a poem.

A limb has fallen from the family tree.
I keep hearing a voice that says, "Grieve not for me.
Remember the best times, the laughter, the song.
The good life I lived while I was strong.
Continue my heritage, I'm counting on you.
Keep smiling and surely the sun will shine through.
My mind is at ease, my soul is at rest.
Remembering all, how I truly was blessed.
Continue traditions, no matter how small.
Go on with your life, don't worry about falls
I miss you all dearly, so keep up your chin.
Until the day comes we're together again.


Roy was a friend to so many people and touched so many lives in so many different ways. Thanks for the memories Uncle Roy. You will be dearly missed.