Wayne Westphal

Surrounded by his loving wife and family, Wayne Westphal reluctantly, but peacefully passed away on May 9, 2021. He was 86 years young.

He was born on March 19, 1935, to Floyd and Julia Westphal on a farm in Middleton township. Wayne was the youngest of two sons. His older brother Ken Westphal, passed away in 2009. In his younger days, he and his family lived between Middleton, Madison and Mt. Horeb, mostly as part of the farming community.

As a youngster growing up, Wayne was a good student. He attended Middleton elementary, Highlands-Mendota Beach School, now Crestwood, Middleton high school and graduated from Mt. Horeb high school in 1953.

As a child growing up, Wayne worked on the family farm; caring for livestock, tending to agriculture and driving the hay wagon at an early age. He and his brother Ken, had a large paper route in the Indian Hills and Shorewood neighborhood and provided the paper to more than 200 people. In the fall of 1945, Wayne earned 17 cents a bushel gathering apples at a local apple orchard. After graduation, he worked at Lane’s Bakery in Madison making doughnuts. This may have been a reason that he developed a lifelong sweet tooth.

Wayne worked at the University Barley Malt Lab and was given the responsibility of testing the thousands of barley varieties for their fitness in malting and beer making. His work was crucial to both farmers and beer-makers, since only a small percentage of barley varieties ended up in popular beer. Wayne always said he could detect a variety of barley without sight because “he had a great sniffer.”

Wayne’s passion forever was the great outdoors. As a young child he would busy himself searching for arrowheads and shooting his BB gun. His passion for nature was best matched as an employee of the University Arboretum in the 1960’s to the late 1970’s.

Wayne’s knowledge of wildlife, trees and plants were shared with the communities he lived in. He assisted Huegel elementary in Madison in establishing a wildflower garden and volunteered his time to plant trees with children.

In 1964, Wayne met his future wife, Roberta (Bobbi) Mayer, at The Villa bar on South Park Street. She had seen him zipping by her office building many days; in a flashy Corvette with his blond hair and tanned skin. They were married September 16, 1966 at Blessed Sacrament Church. They were an active and vibrant couple who enjoyed water skiing, downhill skiing, hunting, camping, neighborhood softball league, gardening, playing euchre, fishing and taking road trips out west with their children. Wayne enjoyed cars, motorcycles, sailboats and canoes and was a passionate deer hunter with the bow.

When Stacey and Nikki were young, Wayne was a busy father who built a swing set, crafted snow forts, and designed animal cages for pets that were brought home. His workbench was a hub of activity. He taught techniques to catch pop-up balls for softball games, frequented the A&W drive-in in Verona, and in later years, how to drive and maintain a car.

Wayne was a talented and gifted artist. His sketching, painting, woodworking and ability to design and create anything was most impressive. His home was decorated with watercolor painting and naturescapes. He spent a tremendous amount of time passing these skills onto his daughters, Stacey and Nikki. He could design a kite from scratch, build a wooden sled for winter fun, or help with homework assignments that needed some creative touches. Assisting his grandson, Dylan, with the construction of pinewood derby cars for Boy Scouts was something he was proud of.

Wayne utilized his artistic talents working for the City of Madison Traffic Engineering. Designing Metro bus signs and traffic signs were some of his specialities. The tractor yield sign is still present near the campus of Epic in Verona.

Wayne’s final employment returned him to the outdoors working for Madison Conservation Parks.  He thrived working to establish and maintain Madison parks and retired in 1990.

Retirement for Wayne was a second chance to reclaim life with projects and hobbies. He threw himself into model building and crafting beautiful radio-controlled airplanes. He joined the Madison Soaring Club and moved into construction of gliders and spent many summer days in Verona at the flying field. Wayne enjoyed traveling with Bobbi to sunny Florida where he would fly his kites on the beach. Wayne became interested in kayaks and soon was building his own that he and Bobbi took out on local lakes. Pool playing with his buddies on Saturday afternoons and tending to his 40 acres of land kept him healthy and happy for all his years.

Wayne loved life and his family. As a grandfather he supported many sporting events, horse shows, archery, cello concerts, and school activities. His love for art was passed onto the grandchildren, especially the youngest granddaughter, Kensington. His greatest joy was giving rides on his tractor mower or 4-wheeler. When he would spend time teaching the grandchildren how to play checkers or do yo-yo tricks, it was like he became a kid again.

There was never a day that Wayne did not look forward to getting up and being busy. His fatherly advice, “do what makes you happy” and “have a life of hobbies” will stay with us.  He lived by these mottos until his passing.

He is survived by his wife, Roberta; his daughter, Stacey Crowe; and son-in-law, Dave; his daughter, Nikki Westphal; and son-in-law, Leif Smith, his grandson, Dylan Westphal; and granddaughters, Ella and Kennedy Crowe and Kensington Smith.

A funeral service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Friday, May 14, at St. Ignatius Church in Mt. Horeb. Father Chahm Gahng will be officiating.

Interment will follow at Middleton Junction Cemetery.

We want to thank the staff at St. Mary’s Hospital, SSM Health and Hospice for their continual love and gentle care they provided to Wayne this past year.