Obituary: Stelzer, Henry “Hank”
Age 84
Hank was born in Lustre, Montana on September 9, 1930.
In 1937, Hank’s family moved from Montana to Floodwood, Minnesota (50 miles Northwest of Duluth, Minnesota).
Hank graduated from the Floodwood High School in 1949.
He attended the LaSalle Business School, then in Chicago, Illinois and Northwestern Bible School in Minneapolis, before enlisting in the Army.
He was also enrolled in a number of Military schools on location and by correspondence.
Hank enrolled with the University of Maryland while in the Army.
Hank lost his eyesight in 1975.
At that time he was working with the Housing and Redevelopment Authority in Duluth.
Hank resigned from that position and started his own business called ‘Country Small Engine’ and became very successful in that business until 1979 when he sold the business.
Also during that time, Hank attended and received training at the Duluth Lighthouse for the Blind and served on the Executive Board of Directors.
Hank also was employed with the Northland Children’s Home in Duluth and was also employed with the Pinkerton Detective Agency.
Hank joined the Peace Corps in the latter of part of 1979, He was assigned to the Country of Lesotho in Southern Africa where he was employed as a blind teacher at the only blind school in the Country.
It was reported that Hank was the first white blind person to work in Lesotho and he was observed to be quite a spectacle with his ability to do so many things that were not expected of a severally visually impaired person.
Hank resigned from the Peace Corps in September 1980 and returned to the United States where-upon he sold all that he had and returned to Lesotho, with the proceeds of his sale, to build the first Blind Skill Training Center in that Country.
It was named the ‘Visual Problem Center.’
He trained a number of blind students who then were gainfully employed in the private and public sector.
His students were the first blind students to be employed in that Country.
He turned the Visual Problem Center over to the Basotho people in 1986.
After Hank left the Center, he began and founded several profitable businesses.
His first business venture was the founding of a Wool and Textile Super Market.
As the owner of the Super Market, Hank would employ and train only unemployed individuals.
He started the business with two employees and four years later he had 25 employees on the payroll.
One notable aspect of Hank’s ventures in Lesotho was that he never kept even one cent for himself as he supported himself on his own disability funds.
He had a number of apartment and houses built for the poor and needy at no cost to them from the profits of the business.
When Hank sold the business, he founded a transportation company named “HUMM”.
The company with twelve Toyota mini-vans and a 25 passenger Mercedes bus, that was actually ‘stolen’ from him (by corrupt people), when he was shot and he survived even though the doctors only gave him less then eight hours to live.
He was treated at the University Hospital in Bloemfontein in the Republic of South Africa.
While he was involved in the company, before being shot, he again did not keep any of the income for himself but gave it all to the needy in building houses and apartments and helping the blind.
Among other accomplishments, Hank began working with orphaned children in a private capacity in South Africa.
Hank is a Veteran of the Korean War and was assigned to the 8204th American Graves Registration Unit.
His assignment was something that bothered him and he did not like to talk about it.
His other duties in the military included being a Supply Sgt.
for the 3rd Central Dental Laboratory in Croux Chapeau, France and a Training Sgt in El Paso, Texas and a Troop information and Education NCO in Camp Stewart, Georgia among other duties.
Hank enlisted in the Army in 1951 and served in the Active Army honorably until June 1956.
He then participated in the Active Reserve and was discharged as a Platoon Sgt.
(SFC E-7) with a Selected Reserve Force in Duluth, Minnesota in 1967.
Hank is a life member of the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Disabled American Veterans, the Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the Blind Veterans of America.
Hank is survived by a brother (Paul) in New Jersey and a brother (Franklin) in Florida.
He also has a sister (Ida Pedey) in Coeur d’Alene, and a sister (Erma Sharp) in Waco, Texas.
Two sisters and two brothers and his parents preceded Hank in death.
Hank has four children by his first marriage (Nancy Lave).
David in Tacoma, Washington, Elizabeth in Niceville Florida, Debra in Duluth/Two Harbors, Minnesota, and Daniel in Aurora, Colorado.
Hank is survived by his second former wife, Alina, in Atlanta, Georgia and a daughter Itumeleng in the Air Force.
Memorial Services will be held at 11:00am, Saturday, March 14, 2015 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Please visit Hank’s online memorial and sign his guestbook at www.yatesfuneralhomes.com