Travis Leith Bartel

Travis Leith Bartel age 78 of Redgranite passed away on Friday, October 3, 2025 at his home.

I fought the cancer, and the cancer won. Guess my race is run. I fought the cancer, and the cancer won.

I was born at the old Berlin Memorial Hospital on East Huron Street at 8:30 p.m., Thursday, August 7, 1947. I got to my parent’s home in Wautoma risking my life on my mother’s lap in a 1936 Dodge 4-door sedan. Four years later, with my father driving, I sat in that car riding onto the Mecan River frozen headwaters for a day of fishing. Before Kindergarten I was taught how to drive on that sheet of ice. One instruction from my dad was to not drive into the open water.

I spent my first 18 years at home, growing up on West Main Street in Wautoma. I graduated from Wautoma High School in 1965 and from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in January 1970. After leaving Oshkosh in 1970 I lived in several Wisconsin locations during my adult life. My addresses included Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Princeton, Berlin, Wautoma, Madison, Monona, Plover, Stevens Point (Amherst Junction), Hancock and Redgranite.

Always living in Wisconsin, I enjoyed the United States, Canada and Mexico. Growing up I traveled to points west for annual vacation in my parent’s station wagon for two weeks every July when Speed Queen shut down. The first stop west was my maternal grandparent Brugger’s farm in east central South Dakota. I found it a wonderful place to explore, so different from my Wautoma life. I really enjoyed driving my grandfather’s and uncle’s tractors at a single digit age. The South Dakota plumbing was not up to my Wautoma indoor standards, but it improved over the years.

My first real job requiring a social security account was trimming evergreens into Christmas tree shaped evergreens for the GR Kirk Company. I was caught red-handed cutting the “leaders” off friend Greg Olson’s row of trees. At the end of the day the Kirk folks read the names of people being told not to report for work any longer. I gleefully announced to my parents that I was fired. Bad move; short-lived gleefulness.

I worked for the State of Wisconsin Department of Industry, Labor and Human Relations/Department of Workforce Development from September 1970 to August 2000. I worked at local Job Service offices in Fond du Lac, Green Lake, Berlin, Wautoma and Madison. From 1978 to 1999 I worked as a Contract Specialist Lead Worker, Alien Labor Specialist, and Senior Budget & Management Analyst at the Madison headquarters.

August 2000 saw me retire from full-time employment. I helped Jill keep us afloat financially working part-time jobs at the Alliant Energy Center’s Dane County Coliseum and Exhibition Center, Madison, WI, and the Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau information desk at the Dane County Regional Airport, Madison, WI. Both were great jobs for people watching.

My longest lasting group of friends have their roots in 1950s and early 1960s Wautoma. By the early 1960s the Wautoma contingent was joined by two Redgranite kids who brought Sheepshead to the table. Playing Sheepshead for sixty years has kept the group connected. We played in Monona, WI; DePere, WI; Wautoma, WI; Mt. Morris, WI; Seattle (Kent), WA; and Flagstaff, AZ. The Sheepshead group included me, Dick Haferbecker, AJ McCaskey, Dr. Gregory “Corky” Olson, Peter Oemichen, Darrell Parker, Wayne Nigor (deceased), Paul Walker (deceased) and Dean Eagan (deceased).

I am survived by Jill Komarek my wife of 27 years; daughter Natalie Bartel, Oshkosh, WI; and son Jason Bartel, Redgranite, WI. I am further survived by my granddaughter Jerissa Plummer, Las Vegas, NV; sister Meris Bartel Mack, Broomfield, CO and numerous nieces and nephews.

My parents Henry Bartel and Violet Brugger Bartel preceded me in death, each living 89 years. Surviving from my small group of five first cousins are Janet Bartel Wade, Wautoma, WI; Robert Bartel, Lodi, WI; and David Bartel, Fish Creek, WI. Cousins DeLorman Bartel and Susan Bartel Reindl preceded me in death.

A special thank you and love to wife Jill and son Jason who devoted themselves to caring for me during my 20+ month battle with pancreatic cancer. I also want to thank the amazing and caring Theda Care Hospice nurses and CNAs that provided support to me and Jill.

Please Google the following two organizations to contribute in my memory if you’d like:

Brain & Behavior Research Foundation: www.bbrfoundation.org

Treatment Advocacy Center; www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org

A Celebration of Life Gathering will be held on Saturday, October 18, 2025 at Leikness Funeral Home from 10AM until 12PM. A Time of Remembrance will be held at 11:30AM for family and friends to share memories about Travis.