Clarence E. Schreiner

Clarence “Hunce” Schreiner was called to his heavenly home on Tuesday, December 15, 2020 at Marshfield Hospital at the age of 81.

Hunce was born July 30, 1939 in the town of Bern to the late Rudolph and Helen (Weiler) Schreiner.  He was united in marriage to Nancy Gebert on October 12, 1957 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Stetsonville.  In their 26 years of marriage, they had 13 children before Nancy was called to Heaven on December 6, 1983.   Hunce later married Darlene “Dolly” (Duerr) Hoff on July 2, 1994 and his family grew by 3 three stepchildren.  Hunce and Dolly also enjoyed 26 years of marriage.

Hunce graduated from Athens High School in 1957.  He joined the workforce and was employed by Janke Construction and Holiday Construction for many years.  He was very proud to work across the state on many water, sewer line and dam projects. He enjoyed operating large equipment even after his construction career ended. If driving by one of his old work projects, he spoke with pride of the work he’d done.  He left the workforce in the early 1980’s to join his wife Nancy and children in running the dairy farm they started together in the early 1960’s.  After being united in marriage, Dolly joined Hunce in operating the farm until their retirement from farming in 1998.  The farm was sold, and they moved into town to enjoy their retirement years.

In addition to farming and construction, Hunce was a well known DeKalb Seed Corn Dealer for approximately 50 years. His other accomplishments include serving on the Board of Directors for Little Black Mutual Insurance for 23 years, and being a founding member of the Athens Sno Pak snowmobile club in 1969.

Hunce was proud of his lifelong membership at St. Anthony Catholic Church in Athens.  There he sang in the Church Choir, served on the Parish Council, volunteered to bake the fish for Lenten fish fries, and at Athens Fair Time he was a faithful volunteer to helping put up and tear down the old food stand.  His church and faith was one of his strongest characteristics.

Hunce enjoyed anything outdoors.  He was an avid hunter, even as his health tried to get in his way he was able to deer hunt for the last time this year.  If he wasn’t able to hunt, he was thrilled just to sit with the crew at their hunting shack.  Hunce loved to fish!  His favorite fishing spot was in Canada where he’d go for weeks at a time, but in the past few years he was able to be fulfilled with the annual family fishing trip to Canada.  So many memories created for him, and along with his family to treasure forever.

Called to their heavenly home before Hunce were his parents, Rudy and Helen; his first wife, Nancy;

his angel daughter, Mary Anne; stepson, Michael Hoff; stepdaughter, Linda (Hoff) Halopka; brother, Frank; and sister, Katie Westfall.

With amazement and love in his eyes, he would sit back and just look at the beautiful family he created at our annual Christmas gatherings!

Hunce is survived by his loving wife Dolly, along with his six sons and six daughters:

Karl (Lisa Clark) – Athens                              Linda (Randy) Kraft – Athens

Tom (Cindy) – Athens                                     Lori (Dennis) Zettler - Athens

Kurt (Renee) – Athens                                   Lisa (John) McCord - Athens

Jim (Tammy) – Athens                                   Lana (Joe) Wogernese - Abbotsford

Ken (Kim) – Abbotsford                                 Tami (Brian Hughes) - Athens

Patrick (Sarah) – Athens                                Sara (Ryan) Kelley – Laona

He is also survived by a stepdaughter, Nettie (Keith) Kremsreiter, Athens; stepdaughter-in-law, Joy Hoff, Medford; and stepson-in-law, Todd Halopka, Dorchester; 37 grandchildren; 10 step-grandchildren; 44 great-grandchildren; and 14 step-great-grandchildren; one brother, Andrew (Luella) Schreiner; and three sisters, Marie Hein and Gloria Brodziski, all of Athens and Ceil (Warren) Bartelt, Merrill.

Hunce cherished the lifelong relationship with Nancy’s side of the family; such a wonderful family that welcomed Dolly and treated her like one of their own.  He is also survived by many sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law from both Nancy and Dolly’s families.

On Sunday, December 27th, 2020 visitation will be hosted at St. Anthony Catholic Church, Athens from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., with a prayer service held at 5:00 p.m.  The funeral Mass will be held Monday December 28th, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. with visitation from 10:00 a.m. until the time of the service. Father George Graham will preside.  Burial will be in the Calvary Cemetery, Athens.  Current social distancing and masking protocols will be followed.   The funeral mass will be live streamed on the Peterson/Kraemer Facebook page.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Schreiner Family.  The donations will be directed to the organizations and charities according to Hunce’s wishes.

Peterson/Kraemer Funeral Home, Athens is in charge of arrangements.  Online condolences may be expressed at www.petersonkraemer.com