Obit: Theisen, Raymond J. (? - 1983)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Theisen, Haupmann, Froseth, Johnson, Norton, Wood, Helm, Betts

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 1/27/1983

Theisen, Raymond J. (? - January 1983) With flag

Funeral services were held Saturday for Raymond J. Theisen, 63, of Altoona, a well-known Eau Claire business leader and a Loyal native. Theisen was born in Milwaukee and grew up in Loyal where he graduated from the Loyal High School in 1937. After attending the Eau Claire Business College for one year he became a bookkeeper and also hauled coal, pumped gas and greased cars for the Consumer Cooperative of Eau Claire. By December of 1941 he was named general manager but left the post in October of 1942 to serve in the Army Air Force and was sent to the China-Burma Theater. After his discharge in 1945, he returned to the cooperative as manager.

By 1950, the co-op had moved to Highland Avenue and South Hastings Way, where it is still located. When Theisen retired Novembe4r 14, 1981, the co-op had yearly sales of $39 million. At the present time the membership is 17,000; there are 225 employees with a payroll of $2.5 million.

In addition to working with the cooperative, he served as a director of the First Wisconsin National Bank of Eau Claire; president of the Wisconsin Credit Union Review Board; member of the Sacred Heart Hospital advisory board; president of the Group Health Cooperative; and on the UW-Madison Hospital board of review. He served as president of the Wisconsin State University-Eau Claire Foundation; president of Regis High School board and was active in the Boy Scouts, as well as other community affairs throughout his life.

Theisen was married to Dorothy Haupmann on June 21, 1941, in Eau Claire. She survives him. Other survivors include three sons, Joseph and James, both of Eau Claire; and Jerome of Van Nuys, California; two daughters, Donna Froseth of Eau Claire, and Rosemary Johnson of Ft. Atkinson; his father, William F. Theisen, of Fall Creek; four brothers, Leo of Orlando, Florida, William of Loyal, Charles of South Milwaukee and Abbot Jerome, Collegeville Minnesota; five sisters, Eleanor Norton, Park Forest, Illinois, Florence Wood of South Milwaukee; Mary Jane Helm of Milwaukee, Betty Johnson of Eau Claire and Barbara Betts of Kirkland, Ohio; and 13 grandchildren.