Alvin ‘Al’ Martin Schumacher was born December 26, 1948, at Bismarck, ND to Eugenia (Vetter) and Martin Schumacher. He was raised on a farm 15 miles south and west of Linton, ND. He attended country school and then later Strasburg Public School through his junior year when re-districting brought him to Linton High School for his senior year. He was active in chorus, football and was part of the 1966 Linton basketball team that went to state. He graduated from high school in May 1966. In the fall he started attending Dickinson State College and returned home for the summers to help on the farm.
On June 4, 1967, his friends asked him to attend a farewell party for Florian Kuss who was leaving for the US Army the next day. Here he met a cute little brown haired 15-year-old girl named Betty Kuss and it was love at first sight. That day started many more dates, with teen dances and movies. He was her rock when Florian died in Vietnam January 5, 1968, and when her father died from cancer on December 21, 1968. Within a year they knew they wanted to get married but agreed that they would both need an education in order to support a family.
He did his student teaching at Hazen, ND and was offered a teaching position for the following school year. He graduated from Dickinson State in May 1970. In December 1970 he received his draft notice but was allowed to complete the school year. He left for the army at the end of May 1971 but returned two days later being denied the draft due to high blood pressure.
He returned home and started looking for another teaching position. Wedding plans were made and on August 21, 1971, Alvin and Betty were married at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Strasburg, ND. Around 400 people attended the supper and dance in the original Blueroom which had no air conditioning, and the day temperature was over 100 degrees. In August they would have been married 53 years.
They moved to Valley City, ND, and the next week he started teaching math and science at North Central of Barnes, Rogers, ND. He started with junior high math but eventually moved up to high school math. His students participated in many Math Count meets and were very successful. Many of his former students never hesitated to tell him how much they learned from him and eventually realized that math does come in handy.
After five years of marriage, they decided to start a family and Nikki was born in 1977, Scott in 1978 and Cory in 1982.
He was asked to coach track which he enjoyed. Later he was asked to be assistant girls basketball coach and eventually varsity girls basketball coach. All of these sports were successful and in the fall of 1986 the girls went to state. There he received the Coach of the Year Award.
He enjoyed participating in men’s softball as a pitcher for many years. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, gardening, playing pool and darts, playing cards and spending time at the family homestead. Summers he would be a professional painter with his colleague Larry Coles, and they painted a lot of homes in and around Valley City. When Betty became the Financial Aid Director at VCSU, he decided to give up painting and stay at home summers with the kids, where he expanded his gardening hobby into a business. He started participating in the Local Farmers Market in the late 80’s and had many gardens over the years in Valley City, Sanborn and at the family farm. People constantly stopped at the house to pick up fresh produce and he always had the first tomatoes and cucumbers for the season.
His boys became his helpers in gardening and when at the farm they never hesitated to find time to go fishing at Oahe Reservoir. In 2019 he bought Betty her dream camper which was settled at Kohler Point on the North/South Dakota border. Here they spent many wonderful times where he could fish to his heart’s content in his boat. His kids and grandchildren have many memories of tubing behind the boat with grandpa.
When the kids were young, he encouraged them in sports. Al drove Nikki, Scott & Cory to bowling tournaments and Taekwondo Tournaments. Al also coached all three of his kids in traveling basketball tournaments. Al and Betty with the kids took family vacations to Yellowstone, Disney Land and to Oregon. The kids were active in bowling tournaments, Taekwondo tournaments and he also drove them to national tournaments in Minnesota and Texas.
In later years, Al and Betty went to Boston, Hawaii, and a cruise of the Virgin Islands. In 2019, Al & Betty accompanied two of their grandsons, to an international wrestling tournament in the Netherlands.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Al’s health started to deteriorate, and his garden helpers (grandsons) were graduating. He reduced his gardening but couldn’t give it up. Even as his strength was failing him, he insisted on putting in a smaller garden. He planted his seeds as usual starting seedings in the house. As recent as this past weekend he supervised the transfer of plants to the garden with his grandsons both at the farm and in Valley City.
Over the years he was a member of the Knights of Columbus, Elks, Eagles, Wildlife Club, NRA, and AARP.
He passed on Thursday, May 16 th at Essentia Health in Fargo surrounded by his family.
He is survived by his mother, Eugenia and the love of his life, his wife and best friend, Betty. His children and their spouses: Nikki (Schumacher) & York Grebel, Valley City, and their sons, Kael, Koye & Koltyn; Scott & Lisa (Krumm) Schumacher, Bismarck, and their sons, Lee, Logan, and Clark; and Cory & Mariya (Zhigunova) Schumacher, West Fargo and their sons, Ivan and Maxwell. Grandson Kael Grebel and fiancé’ Chelsey Tank live at LaMoure and have one son Grayson and his first great granddaughter is due in June. He is also survived by siblings: Valencia Wald, Venturia, ND, Mary Ann Coupland (and her friend John), Pennsylvania, Bob & Shirley (Fischer) Schumacher, Fargo, ND, and Sharon & (Matt) Fishel, Juneau, AK, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews and cousins.
He was predeceased by his father, Martin Schumacher, and his grandparents: John & Kathrine (Wald) Schumacher; Frank and Genevieve (Schlosser) Vetter; and his in-laws Frank & Martina (Volk) Kuss; five brothers-in-law and one sister-in-law, Florian Kuss, Jim Wald, Charles Kuss, Delbert Scott, and Victor & Diane (Huppert) Kuss; three nephews, Tony Kuss, Micky and Tommy Wald and many aunts and uncles.
He is now gardening, hunting, and fishing to his heart’s content and watching over us all.
He’ll always be remembered by these words from a song he liked to play on the jukebox: “I hate to leave you, but I really must say, Goodnight, Sweetheart, Good Bye….”
The family will be hosting a celebration of Al’s life to share stories and memories beginning at 5:00 PM, Saturday, May 18, 2024 in the Valley City Eagles Club. An online guestbook is available on his tribute page at lerudmathias.com