RACINE — Buildings have a sense of maintaining the memories of those who occupied them in the past. And when those buildings are torn down or sold, it often puts the final ending on those memories.
For Don Lotharius, one such building is the old Teamsters Local 200 building at 1624 Yout St.
“That was always my dad’s office,” Lotharius said. “That’s where he worked every day.”
Lotharius’s father, Leo, was president of the Teamsters local from 1954-79.
“Being a truck driver, he had to join the Teamsters,” Lotharius said, adding his father became a union representative before being elected president of the chapter. “He built the membership up from probably a thousand, maybe a little less, of members at the time, to about 6,000 members.”
As a kid, Lotharius often visited his father at work after school.
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“I would sit at his desk and do homework but I could hear the union meeting down the hall,” he said. “Going there was pretty cool. My dad knew a lot of people.”
Being president required Leo Lotharius to be active in local politics.
“He was involved in political rallies and things of that nature,” Lotharius said. “I remember as a little, little kid meeting (Sen.) Hubert Humphrey when he ran against (John) Kennedy in 1960 (Democratic primary).”
Leo Lotharius passed away in 1990.
New use for property
Two years ago, Lotharius drove by the old Teamsters building and saw it was for sale. Since his dad’s time as president of the local, things had changed — union membership was down and many jobs had left Racine.
It seemed like life wouldn’t fill the walls again until recently, when Veterans Outreach of Wisconsin proposed to purchase the property to build the James A. Peterson Veteran Village for homeless veterans. The organization’s plan is to provide a place for veterans to address any personal issues and build 15 “tiny houses” to give veterans temporary shelter.
According to Jeff Gustin, co-founder of Veterans Outreach, the organization has submitted land surveys to the City of Racine and is waiting to have its proposal placed on the City Council agenda for consideration. Veterans Outreach also has raised more than $100,000 for the tiny-house village and plans to have seven tiny houses, currently being built offsite on a farm in Mount Pleasant, by the end of this month.
This touched a spot in Don Lotharius’ heart. Before his father became president of the local Teamsters chapter, before he became a union representative, before he became a truck driver, he served in the Army during the final years of World War II.
Lotharius said his father fought in the famous Battle of the Bulge in Belgium and was wounded in several battles.
“He saw a lot of action,” Lotharius said, adding his father was a squad leader. “He led the first patrol into Heinrich Himmler’s house, the head of the SS.”
The Schutzstaffel (SS) was a paramilitary organization in Nazi Germany, which, among other duties, gathered intelligence and oversaw Adolf Hitler’s concentration camps in which 6 million Jews were killed.
Concern for fellow vets
Growing up, Lotharius only heard snippets of his father’s time in the military, but he recognized his father would help every veteran he could.
“Whenever a veteran came to my dad’s office looking for work, he always made sure they had a job,” Lotharius said. “He made a few phone calls and he had them a job somewhere … they never went away empty-handed, because he had a soft spot for veterans.”
Lotharius said he was “thrilled” when he heard Veterans Outreach was trying to obtain his father’s old workplace.
“I couldn’t think of a better organization to take over the old union hall,” Lotharius said. “He put his heart and soul in that local … I’m sure he’s smiling down.”
“Whenever a veteran came to my dad’s office looking for work, he always made sure they had a job. He made a few phone calls and he had them a job somewhere … they never went away empty-handed, because he had a soft spot for veterans."
— Don Lotharius
Ricardo Torres
Reporter
