Albert Dede

Albert William Dede, our beloved dad, went to be with the Lord, early Saturday morning, 4/3/21, aged 95. due to complications from a fall,

Born on 2/26/26, in Defiance Ohio, he was the 4th child of his parents, Albert and Alma (Staas) Dede. Brothers Roland, Eldred and sister Jane passed before him, and he has one living brother, John.

His family moved to Milwaukee when he was 2 years old, as his father became a professor at Concordia College, Missouri Synod. Raised in the depression era, he remembers things only a man of his age could. In his younger years his family built a cottage on Little Crawling Stone Lake where he had memories of daily fishing, picking blueberries, swimming, and boating through the chain of lakes to LacDuFlambeau for groceries.

He grew up on Concordia's “professors' row” and went to Bethlehem grade school and then Concordia in Milwaukee. He went on to the seminary in St Louis where he had the experience of singing in a quartet that traveled the west in the summer of 1946. He graduated from Concordia, River Forest, where he met our mother.

He married Ruth Lillian Koehler on July 11, 1949 and taught in LCMS schools thereafter in Milwaukee, Cleveland, Richmond, MI, and in 1965 came to St. Johns in Watertown, WI, finally retiring in 1983 at St. Peters in Lebanon. Upon retirement he helped the two Lutheran schools there become one.

He and our mother had four children, Allan, Carole, Laurel, and Rachel. Our mother passed away 2/7/14, just before their 65th wedding anniversary. We have lovingly cared for our dad over the past years increasingly as he aged.

Our dad lived a good life. Besides teaching school, 1- 4 grades at a time and/or being the principal, he directed choirs, and loved woodworking, painting, artwork, model railroading, and playing the Sohmer piano.

He rehabbed and lived in his home here in Watertown for 56 of his 95 years. He and our mother enjoyed good friends along the way, traveling in the summer to national parks and to see relatives until retirement, when he and mom bought a little place in Florida where they spent winters for 21 years. They always found ways to be close to their children no matter where we were.

He will be missed by us, but we have the joy of knowing that his mind is now clear and his body is able, and that he is with the Lord now and forevermore, where we will one day meet again.

He is survived by son Allan Dede and daughters Carole Dede, Laurel (Mike) Friedl and Rachel (Kent) Bernhard. He had 11 grandchildren: Uriah (Taneka) Friedl, Bethany (Brian) Bowman, Jasmine (Tanner) Friedl, Stacie (Marcus) Dede, Tresca (Patrick) Meiling, Noel (Rachelle) Friedl, Ira (Cathleen) Meiling, Zachary (Bethany) Friedl, Griffen (Rachel) Bernhard, Emily Bernhard, and Gabriel Bernhard. He also had 9 great grandchildren: Kanon, Madeleine, Hailey, Samara, Elisa, Brendan, Wesley, Graham, and Chase.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00AM on Friday, April 9, 2021, at St. Peters Lutheran Church of Lebanon with Rev. David Groth of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church of Watertown presiding.  Family and friends are invited to attend a visitation at the church on Friday from 10:00am until the time of service. Burial will follow the service at St. Peters Lutheran Cemetery.