Terry L. Ball

Terry L. Ball, age 72, of Eagle, WI, passed away peacefully surrounded by family on Thursday, June 07, 2018. Terry Lee Ball was born on January 26,1946 to Phyllis and Russell Ball at Mercy Hospital in Valley City, North Dakota. Terry spent his first eight years on a small farm near Tower City, North Dakota. Nicknamed “Terry the Terror,” he stayed busy doing chores and taking apart anything he could get his hands on. He successfully mastered driving a tractor and could plow furrows straighter than his own dad. Terry loved spending time with extended family, especially his “Eehaw” Grandpa Biggers in nearby Buffalo. Terry, and his siblings, loved riding in Grandpa’s Crosley with the smiling headlamps. One of the most remarkable stories of Terry’s childhood is his successful attempt to run away to Grandpa’s house. After “accidentally” setting fire to a small grove of trees, a five-year old Terry ran barefoot and shirtless nearly 10 miles across farm fields to Grandpa’s house in town stopping only to drink water from cow troughs. Terry always had fond memories of his time as a North Dakota farm kid. In 1954, drawn by tales of warmer weather, good football, and a carpentry job for Russell, the family packed up and moved to the northern suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With his dad working as a carpenter and his mom waitressing, Terry took the initiative at age 14 to find a job and make his own money. He got a bike out of a junkyard, fixed it up, and began delivering newspapers. In the winter, he delivered them by learning to drive his dad’s Plymouth station wagon. When he took his driving exam at age 16, the instructor remarked that Terry was an exceptionally skilled driver for one so young! Terry attended Granville High School in Brown Deer, WI. Although his dad had taught him a lot about carpentry, he also taught him that there had to be a better way to make a living and that education was the key to success. Terry was in the National Honor Society, performed in the school musicals Damn Yankees (Joe Hardy) and The Music Man (Ewart Dunlop), was class and student body president, and was an AFS student to Germany. He perfected his public speaking skills by giving presentations about his AFS trip, which he considered the most wonderful experience a high school student could have. He was able to regale his fellow students with amusing tales of “plop” toilets, good food, and the importance of seeking out similar experiences abroad to enrich life. He would have a very special place in his heart for all things German for the rest of his life. While most people knew Terry was successful academically in high school, he was far more renowned for his athletic accomplishments. Terry seemed to succeed effortlessly at every sport he tried. In high school, Terry participated in football, basketball, and track & field. He earned seven letters at Granville for sports. In football, he played left halfback and was named All-Conference honorable mention his junior year. In basketball, he was a talented point guard and was named his team’s MVP and was also named All-Conference both his sophomore and junior years. His greatest accomplishments came on the track. As a freshman, he was a conference champion and placed fifth in the state in the half-mile. The following year, he again won his conference and finished second in the half-mile at state. He became both a conference and a state champion his junior year by winning the mile in 4:25.6, a school record that stood for over twenty years. But, his senior year, he had a setback. On the third play of an early season non-conference football game against Madison Edgewood, he severely broke his left leg. Although his athletic career was over, he was able to fall back on his academic achievements, his initiative, and eternal optimism to continue to be successful. After graduating with honors from Granville High School in 1964, Terry received a prestigious appointment to the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado with the dream of being a pilot and astronaut. He served for one year before realizing his path led elsewhere and received an honorable discharge. He continued his collegiate studies at UW-Milwaukee pursuing a degree in Mechanical Engineering. He took an internship/co-op position with the Falk Corporation, and following graduation in 1969 enjoyed a 37-year career as a sales engineer with Falk. The position took Terry to Denver, CO, San Francisco, CA, and Charleston, WV before returning home to Wisconsin. His job also took him all over the United States, Asia, and Europe. After retiring from Falk as VP of Sales, Terry worked for Autologik in Hartland, WI. He ended his professional career working for several years with Philadelphia Gear. He truly enjoyed the work he did, always strived to do the best job he could, and was respected in the industry by his co-workers, customers, and even competitors. In 2016, he was inducted into the Brown Deer-Granville High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Terry credited his success both on and off “the field of friendly strife” to his highly competitive nature and passion for life. During his life, Terry was blessed to be a dad to five kids. His first marriage brought him Kelly, Kevin, and Brian. His marriage to Johanna, the love of his life, brought him Jason and Megan. As a dad, Terry coached basketball, went to swim meets, watched countless football, basketball, soccer, and volleyball games, and introduced all of his kids to the sport of curling. He built snow forts and sled runs and took them on vacations, but he was especially fond of their special place “Up North” at Wilderness Lake. He gave each of them the best childhood a kid could ask for in every possible way. In his spare time, Terry was an avid golfer. He regularly hit the links any chance he could, and he was fortunate enough to participate in the Lombardi charity golf classic, representing the Falk Corporation, for many years. He was also a member of the Kettle Moraine Curling Club for 40 years, participating in countless bonspiels and making many wonderful, life-long friends. And, of course, he loved to watch any kind of sport. Terry had a rather unique sense of humor and never missed an opportunity to entertain. He once convinced his sister Rosie that he’d fallen down the stairs and broken his neck. He told a fellow passenger upon landing at San Francisco airport that they flew in over the water to “wash off the landing gear.” He had Kevin and Brian convinced that there was a “chimney monster” living in the West Virginia house when he was doing some work on it and heard their voices echoing up. Just a few weeks ago, he was with a group of visitors who were whispering, thinking he was resting. He picked a lull in the conversation to whisper, “Why are you whispering? I’m not a baby!” He was a consummate story-teller and kept everyone mesmerized by tales of his adventures. We could sit and listen to him for hours. And then there were the TeeBee stories he liked to tell to entertain his kids. They were about this crazy North Dakota farm kid and all the adventures he had. It made anyone listening want to be just like TeeBee. It wasn’t until years later that we found out TeeBee was dad. Terry loved his family deeply and enjoyed spending time with them as much as possible. He also enjoyed hanging out with his buddies at the Mug Club. We will miss our husband, son, father, brother, grandfather, and friend. The world was a better place because of him in so many ways. Terry is survived by his loving wife Johanna 'Jo' of 22 years; his children Kelly (Todd) Linskey, Kevin Ball, Brian (Tarra) Ball, Jason (Jenny) Marek and Megan Marek (Ian McDonald); his grandchildren Amanda, Julia, Allison, Matthew, Chase, Ella, Alaina, Caleb and Abigail; his mother Phyllis Gutzmann; his father and mother-in-law Siegfried and Grace Penn; his siblings Rosemary (Keith) Snow, Kathy (Gene) McCann, Claude Ball, Becky (Ed Riopel) Makowski-Riopel and many aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces and extended family. Terry is preceded in death by his father Russell Ball; his sisters Roberta and Robin Ball and his brother-in-law Edmund 'Hugh' Makowski. Services for Terry will be held at St. Mary's Episcopal Church (36014 Sunset Dr., Dousman) on Saturday, June 16, 2018 at 11 am. A visitation for family and friends will be held from 9:30am until 10:45am. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Terry's name to the American Cancer Society. The family would like to give special thanks to Dr. Christopher Hake, Deb Dittmar, RN, the caring oncology staff at the D N Greenwald Center, and to Prohealth Home Hospice for the loving care shown to Terry.