Russell E. Wachter

Russell E. Wachter of Creston, passed away Nov. 25, 2025, at Iowa Methodist Medical Center with family at his side.

Survivors include daughters: Deanna Wachter, Connie (Jerry) Vesbach , Kathy (Joe) Weisinger and Becky Scholtec (Bill Dodd); son Raymond Wachter; stepdaughter JoAnne Hardick; stepsons, Jeff Wright-Sedam (Ann Lapinski) and Steve Sedam (Susan Sullivan); seven grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren and four step-grandchildren.

Preceding him in death are wife Judith Wachter; parents, Josephine Emma Dittmar of Massbach, Illinois, and Glen Wilbert Wachter of Clark, South Dakota.

A memorial service will be scheduled for a later date.

Russell Eugene Wachter was born July 1, 1939, in Jo Daviess County, Illinois. Russell had nine brothers and sisters who grew up on their parents’ dairy farm near Stockton, Illinois.

Russell was a lifelong lover of baseball and often played first base as a teenager and later in Creston summer leagues. After graduating high school in 1957, Russell attended railroad school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, graduating October 1957.

His first job was with the C.B. & Q. Railroad, stationed in Galesburg, Illinois. Russell continued working for the railroad, next with Burlington Northern and eventually retiring as an engineer from Burlington Northern Santa Fe in 2002 after 44 years of service.

In 1974, Russell moved to Creston and bought a small farm north of Summit Lake and began active participation and membership in the Salem Lutheran Church. In 1982, after two earlier marriages ended in divorce, Russell and Judith met when they were set up on a date by their mutual friends Raymond and Shirley Lischer. They went to see a local theatre production of “On Golden Pond.” Russell and Judith married and lived on farms in east Union County before moving back to Creston in 2019.

After Russell’s retirement from the railroad, he became more active in agriculture and livestock transport. He worked part time for many years for Hawkeye Breeders in Adel. For the five decades he lived in Union County, he could frequently be seen at the Creston Livestock Market, where he loved to drink coffee and offer hauling services to local farmers. Those travels, picking up and delivering livestock and farm equipment, took him from Phoenix, Arizona, to Montana and as far east as Utica, New York. The week before he passed away, he completed his last trip – hauling bulls from western Nebraska to Jackson, Tennessee.

An avid supporter of sports teams, from the Creston Panthers to the Iowa Hawkeyes and the Chicago Cubs and Bears, Russell loved living in Union County. Whether working cattle on his own farm, being the engineer on Amtrak or hauling livestock, Russell was a wonderful neighbor, husband and father. After a hard day’s work, he loved to take his children and grandchildren to dinner and always supported local restaurants like the Windrow and S & K Cafe in the 80s and 90s, and Spencer’s and Mario’s in his later years.

Once he and Judith moved back to Creston in 2019, his favorite pastime was walking from his backyard over to the CHS athletic fields to see the boys and girls play baseball and softball and mingle and talk with anyone and everyone.

Russell had a lively curiosity about the world. Although he never willingly touched a computer in his life, he was an inveterate reader of print newspapers and other publications. He loved the daily Jumble and his family enjoyed receiving mail from him containing carefully clipped articles on subjects he thought would interest them.

In his youth, he was known as a prankster and a troublemaker; as an adult, he loved to tease Judith and JoAnne and to spin tall tales. His post-railroad hauling career gave him an incredibly detailed knowledge of every four-lane, two-lane, gravel and dirt road from Montana to Tennessee; sometimes his kids would call him from their own road trips to administer a geography test, and he always passed. Russell hid a soft heart under a gruff exterior and was an utter rock to those who depended on him.

Highballs!