Guenther Otto Wilhelm Kruse

Guenther was born in Oldenburg in northwest Germany. He was chosen by the American Field Service to be a high school exchange student in Kingman, Kansas in 1963/64. Through the effort of friends he was granted a scholarship at a junior college in York, Nebraska, but he returned to Germany to finish his education in Oldenburg.

He served his military time in Germany. Guenther was stationed along the Iron Curtain to East Germany as a border guard in West Germany and there he met and married Sabine in her hometown in 1967 and daughter Karin was born the following year. Together they decided for Guenther to take up the scholarship opportunity and to come to Nebraska.

After two years at York College, Guenther continued his studies at the University of Nebraska, where in 1981 he was awarded a PhD in Life Sciences. During his university years, he became involved with the AAU wrestling organization because its president, living in Lincoln, Nebraska, was looking for a German speaker who could help organize exchanges between young wrestlers of the US and Europe. And this is what Guenther did. He also helped organize world championships and worked with the German and international wrestling organization for more that 10 years.

In 1982 the Kruse family returned to Germany and in August of that year Guenther was hired by Pfizer Germany in their animal health division because he had the perfect qualifications to help them launch a new product to eliminate parasites in cattle.

In 1986 Pfizer transferred Guenther to its NY Headquarter and in 1992 he was put in charge of the animal health business in Southeast Asia, headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. From there a transfer brought him back to Lincoln, Nebraska, a manufacturing site, and in 2002, Guenther consolidated manufacturing logistics from New Jersey until his retirement in 2012. In retirement in Arizona, he golfed and hiked, walked the Camino in Spain in 2014 (500 miles) and the West Highland Way (95 miles) in 2016.

He and Sabine celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 2017 in Germany. And then ever so slowly the shadow of Alzheimer’s invaded his life.