L. Fritz Loseke led a full life that revolved around his faith, family, and farming. After a short illness, he died Sept. 15, 2023, at Bryan Medical Center West in Lincoln with loved ones at his side. He was 94.

The funeral service will be held on Wednesday, September 20 at 10:30 AM, at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Columbus with Rev. Patrick Sparling officiating.  Interment with military honors by The American Legion Hartman Post 84 Honor Guard, will be in Roselawn Memorial Cemetery.  Visitation will be on Tuesday from 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM at Gass Haney Funeral Home and continue Wednesday from 9:30 AM until service time at the church.  There will be a family prayer service on Wednesday at 10:15 AM, at the church. Memorials are suggested to Immanuel Lutheran Church Endowment Fund, 1470 24th Ave., Columbus, NE 68602; and The Lutheran Hour, lutheranhour.org.

Fritz, born May 13, 1929, to Lorenz and Lucy (von Bergen) Loseke, was raised 6 miles north of Columbus, Nebraska, on the farm his great-grandfather homesteaded in 1867. When Fritz was 2 years old and the country was mired in the Great Depression, his parents built a buff-colored brick farmhouse using mortar made from sand hauled up from the nearby pasture. The family lived in the garage through the winter while the house was built. The home was designed by Lucy and wired in anticipation of electricity one day becoming available.

Fritz lived in that house the rest of his life, aside from a stint in the Army during the Korean War. It's where he and his beloved wife of 70 years, Wilma, raised their four children -- Dwight, David, Diane and Donna.

Because his only sibling, Mark, was 14 years younger, Fritz was an only child for most of his youth.

His first farm job was to carry pails of water to the cedar trees his father had planted around the farmhouse, and hoe the weeds around the trees. When he was a bit older, he helped his uncle scoop wheat or oats into granaries after the threshing crew had completed their work. When he was older still, Fritz harnessed horses, three abreast, to pull a harrow and break up clods of soil after a field had been plowed.

The Losekes seldom missed a Sunday service at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Columbus. Indeed, the only thing more deeply ingrained in Fritz than farming was love of God. Every Sunday afternoon the family turned on a radio and listened to the Lutheran Hour.

Fritz attended District 10 school through his second year of high school, except for eighth grade, when he went to Immanuel Lutheran School so he could be confirmed. He attended Kramer High his last two years of high school and graduated in 1947.

Fritz then became a full-time farmer. A couple of years later he met a Lutheran schoolteacher named Wilma Lange at a roller-skating party. For their first date, he took her to a friend's birthday party. They began going steady.

The Korean War interrupted their courtship. Fritz, drafted into the Army in 1950, never forgot his serial number: US55173965. He underwent Signal Corps training and then steamed to Korea aboard a troop transport ship, the USS Gen. M.C. Meigs. Some soldiers endured terrible seasickness, but not Fritz, who had grown accustomed to being bounced and jostled around while riding bale trailers on the farm.

Pfc. L. Fritz Loseke was assigned to the 5th Regimental Combat Team. After landing at Pusan, Korea, in September 1951 and then spending some time at an Army-run prisoner of war camp, Fritz's unit was sent to the "Punchbowl" area, several miles south of what is now the Korean Demilitarized Zone.

At least once a day, Fritz and another Signal Corps soldier were assigned to deliver a message to another Army unit, usually at night. To avoid detection by the enemy, they rode in a Jeep with the lights mostly blacked out, which meant they could barely see the trail. During Fritz's first message run, U.S. Army tanks emerged from a cave above the trail, their .50-caliber machine guns blazing. "I'll bet they did that just to scare the hell out of us," Fritz once recalled. "And they sure did."

Fritz was honorably discharged in spring 1953 and returned to Nebraska, and farm life, and Wilma. He soon proposed to her. After a short engagement, they were married in St. John's Lutheran Church in Ord, Nebraska, on July 19, 1953. They honeymooned in Chicago.

Eleven months after the wedding, their first child, Dwight, was born. Over the next six years, David, Diane and Donna arrived. Fritz took pride in their accomplishments and the way they lived their lives, many times proudly noting that they never embarrassed him.

On Sundays the family worshipped at Immanuel Lutheran Church, where over the years Fritz held many lay roles, including chairman of the congregation, head of the endowment fund committee, elder and treasurer. As chairman, he assembled a committee that oversaw a major church construction project resulting in additions to the school, as well air conditioning for the church, new offices and a community room.

For more than 50 years, Fritz and Wilma enjoyed monthly card club gatherings with friends.

In all the years that Fritz farmed, he never gave a thought to doing anything else. He witnessed many technological advances. Horses in the field gave way to steel-wheeled and then rubber-wheeled tractors. Center-pivot irrigation machines revolutionized crop irrigation. GPS tracking made farmers more efficient and productive.

Fritz himself didn't change in the ways that really mattered. He remained the kind, generous, faithful, level-headed farmer loved by his family and respected by all who knew him. Much of what he learned about farming — as well as how to deal fairly with people — had come from his father, Lorenz. If he told someone he would sell grain for a certain price, no written contract was needed. He always was as good as his word.

Fritz is survived by his wife, Wilma; son Dwight (Mary Jo) Loseke; son David Loseke; daughter Diane (Flavel) Heyman; daughter Donna (John) Johnston; brother Mark (Lanette) Loseke. His grandchildren: Derek (Barb) Loseke; Jeremy Loseke; Cassandra Loseke (Luke Eaton); Valerie (Aaron) Hedges; Flavel (Megan) Heyman; Forrest Heyman (Laura Chaddock); Claire Heyman; Joseph Johnston (Ayesha Akhtar); Sally (Thomas) Ware. And 10 great-grandchildren: Caitlin Loseke, Addison Loseke, Easton Loseke, Aida Hedges, Hailey Hedges, Opal Heyman, Flavel John Heyman, Lexi Heyman, Aidhan Leo Akhtar-Johnston, Ayaan Noah Akhtar-Johnston; and beloved nieces and nephews.