| Graduation Year | Class of 1955 |
| Date of Birth | Dec 03, 1937 |
| Date of Passing | Dec 05, 1954 |
| About | William Koester, 17, Killed When Pickup Smashes Into Freight Train In Fog Sunday Number 8 In County For Year Fog, ice, a freight train speeding through the crisp night, and a pickup truck carrying three youthful rabbit hunters. These were the principles in a tragedy which resulted in the death of a Waseca high school student, William Koester, Sunday night. Koester, 17, Eugene E. Schimmel, 18, an employee of Koester's father, Earl, on their farm seven miles northwest of Waseca, and Robert Sprengeler, 16, had left the Koester home at 8 p.m. to hunt rabbits. The three were constant companions. They took a three-quarter ton pickup, all climbing into the cab. Along the county roads northwest of here they hunted their prey. But fog moved in, sometimes obscuring the road ahead. It was through one of these fog banks the boys peered. "We knew there was a railroad track there and we were looking for the sign." Sprengeler later describes. "We couldn't see a sign. The last thing we saw was the train." There was a sign, but on the other side of the tracks. Through the thick fog, just ahead of the track, an M&St.L freight train was speeding northward. The pickup truck was traveling east at a cautious speed, the boys said, of ten or fifteen miles an hour. Then the combined forces of the truck, the train, the ice and the result of the fog struck. The truck skidded on the ice. Koester, who was driving, attempted to veer off to the right. The rear wheels of a tank car smashed into the front end of the truck, knocked the entire wheel assembly out from under the pickup and slammed it against the train. The pickup truck was thrown through a ditch and up the far bank, coming to rest beside its front wheels. Metal was strewn along the right of way. Koester lay motionless in the snow. He was killed instantly by a compound skull fracture. The other two boys began to crawl out of the cab. The train, derailed at the tank car, slammed to a stop. The caboose stopped about two blocks past the wreckage of the pickup. A fireman on the train (the entire crew was from Minneapolis) ran back to the wreckage. He helped the two survivors to the Art Larson farm, nearby, where Sheriff Stan Bailey, Deputy Sheriff Don Eustice and Peterson Ambulance were called. Eustice took Sprengeler and Schimmel to Waseca Memorial hospital where they were checked and later released. Koester's body was taken to the Pfaff Funeral home. The accident happened on the first road going west, south of the North Waseca Lutheran church. The time was estimated at 10:45. Schimmel received bruises about the head, shoulder, and left foot while Sprengeler had a cut hand, a bruised right leg and other bruises about his body. Conductor of the train, E. Siems, Minneapolis, and others of his crew, worked with the derailed car several hours before getting it back on the track. Koester's death was number 590 in the state this year and the eighth in Waseca county as compared to a total of four last year. William Warren Koester was born December 2, 1837, in Iosco township, Waseca county, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Koester. He was a senior at Central high school and was active in 4-H for the past three years. He also was on the school patrol. Surviving are his parents and one sister, Carol, 19, who is attending St. Olaf college. Funeral services will be at 2 p. m. Wednesday at St. Paul's Lutheran church, the Rev. E. H. Eifert conducting the service. Burial will be in Woodville cemetery. Pall bearers will be four class mates, George Winegar, Alfred Kampen, Michael Iverson, Gerald Mittelsteadt, and the two friends who were with him at the time of his death, Robert Sprengeler and Eugene Schimmel. Bill's classmates attended the funeral as a group. The 1955 class yearbook is dedicated to him. |
