Reinhard "Lee" Speltz

A memorial service for Reinhard "Lee" Speltz, 92, of Minden will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Gall Catholic Church in Gardnerville.

Mr. Speltz died Sept. 29, 2004, at home.

He was born April 16, 1912, in Rollingstone, Minn.

He joined the Minnesota National Guard and was promoted to second lieutenant in the mid-1930s after completing officer candidate school.

His unit was called to active duty early in 1941. He was stationed in Riverside, Calif., and San Francisco, where he commanded an anti-aircraft artillery battery.

Shortly after Pearl Harbor, he was transferred to the South Pacific, and was in Okinawa at the end of the war.

After the war in 1946, Col. Speltz was stationed in Seoul, South Korea, where he met and married Floe Otteson.

For the following 12 years, he was stationed in various areas, including Fort Davis in the Panama Canal Zone, and retired in 1958 as a full colonel at Fort Sam Houston in Texas.

After retirement, he moved to Zephyr Cove, where he had various jobs while studying for his real estate license, which he received in 1960.

He retired from his real estate business in 1979, and remained at Lake Tahoe until 1997, when he moved to Minden.

He was active in various organizations, including Rotary, Chamber of Commerce and the Retired Officers Association.

He volunteered to sit on several boards of community organizations.

Among his survivors are his wife of 57 years and sons Gordon of Minden and Richard of Sacramento.

Memorial contributions may be made to the South Lake Tahoe Chapter of the American Cancer Society, P.O. Box 17962, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96151.