Vern Zech is a Fort native on a social media mission

By Kim McDarison 

If you follow social media in Fort Atkinson, you likely know the name Vern Zech. 

The “admin” of two Facebook pages — “Fort Atkinson Wi.: Taking a Stroll Down Memory Lane Then And Now” and “Jefferson County Obituaries” — Zech’s posts reach some 9,200 and 4,800 group members, respectively.

While Zech creates posts and monitors his pages, he said, his group members through the years have become engaged readers and active posters themselves. Creating active pages is a feat much valued by the Fort Atkinson community, as evidenced each day as people flock to the pages for a variety of Fort Atkinson-specific bits of information. 

Area journalists also mine his sites for information. Zech said he is aware of that, and he has sent news tips to several, some of whom write stories based on them. 

While many in town know the name, the man himself is somewhat elusive. Health concerns are a contributing factor, and although Zech said he enjoys providing the pages as a service to the community, he also considers himself something of a loner. 

A Fort Atkinson native, Zech said: “I love Fort Atkinson. It’s a good place.” 

He credits the community’s rhythm and style to its people. 

“They are ‘get-along’ people. You can sit down in a bar and start a three-hour conversation and the people here will help you out,” Zech said. 

And he continues that cadence. 

‘Beaver,’ ‘Dennis the Menace,’ and ‘Huck Finn’

Born in the mid-1950s on St. Patrick’s Day, Zech was the fourth of 10 children growing up in a 1-1/2 story, three-bedroom home on Monroe Street. His father was a truck driver and his mother, a homemaker, he said. His paternal grandfather also resided with the family. 

Those were the days of television shows like “Leave it to Beaver,” which aired from 1957 to 1963. 

“I idolized ‘Beaver’ and ‘Dennis the Menace,’” Zech said, defining the TV characters as his childhood heroes. 

While the household was crowded — “You had all these people all around all the time, so we had to get along,” Zech said — he described his formative years in Fort Atkinson as warm and enjoyable. 

As a trucker, his dad was away most weekdays, and Zech spent his time doing errands with his mother. She didn’t have a driver’s license, he recalled, and the family often would walk to the grocery store as a group. 

Leisure time during his boyhood was spent on his bicycle, riding around town, or playing with other children in his neighborhood. 

“Back then, everybody’s parents took care of other parents’ kids. You listened and were respectful; It was a more respectful time,” Zech said. 

He also learned to enjoy the outdoors, describing a love of fishing.

“The (Rock) river was two blocks away. I did the ‘Huck Finn’ thing, with a stick, and a line and a hook,” he recalled. “I’d use a nut for a bobber, and if you dug a hole on the riverbank, you’d find worms. Everything was right there.”  

Zech attended Fort Atkinson High School through his sophomore year, after which he joined Job Corps, a voluntary program administered by the United States Department of Labor that offers free education and vocational training to young men and women ages 16-24. He could learn at his own pace there, he said, and he earned his GED and became certified in building maintenance. 

A very varied career

While continuing to live at home with his family, Zech embarked upon a multifaceted career path. 

Opportunities just came his way, he said.

“Somehow, someway, society and information comes to me. It all comes from ‘him,’” he said, pointing upward, and he noted he is happy and grateful, but “sometimes, it’s stressful.” 

Among his earliest jobs, Zech said, was working 2-1/2 years as a custodian at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, and then he served as a bartender at the Gaslight Lounge, located where Fat Boyz Bar and Grill is today. 

While working at the bar, Zech said, he fixed a pinball machine for a vender. In turn, the vendor offered him a job. 

While employed by the vending company, Zech said, he helped assemble foosball tables for area tournaments and attended what he called “pinball school” in Wisconsin Rapids. That was a several-week seminar program through which he learned about tabletop game machines. 

“Video games were just starting to come out; it was about 1977,” Zech said. 

He left vending machine work in the early 1980s, looking for a job with less travel. 

He found it working with Larsen Canning Company in Fort Atkinson, where he maintained and operated harvesting equipment for such crops as spinach, lima beans and corn. He worked within the fields of local farms in several counties around Fort Atkinson, he said.  

Zech worked seasonally with Larsen for about four years, he said. During the off season, he worked recovering pool tables and refurbishing antique furniture.  

He also worked for a while installing banking equipment like safes, vaults, safety deposit boxes and ATMs. That was during the 1980s, he added. 

As times changed, Zech said, temporary employment agencies arrived into the area, and he signed up with one. The agency placed him for a day with a vendor in Cambridge to wire lamps, and while he was there, he was offered a job with Cambridge Village Forge, a company that made decorative items through blacksmithing. 

The job was not the best fit for him, Zech said, and three months later, he found himself back in Whitewater, working as a maintenance man in an assisted-living facility catering to adults with intellectual disabilities. 

While in that role, Zech said, residents of the facility often followed him around and he’d let them help with small jobs. The activity gained some notice and he was invited to help with prevocational training, he said. 

At the time, the facility had eight residents.

“I enjoyed it. It was fun and I helped a lot of people out,” Zech said. “It was rewarding.” 

Zech worked at the assisted-living facility for four years, but in time, he said, he began to feel “burned out.”  

Soon after, he said, he was diagnosed with health issues that were affecting his heart and lungs. That was in 2000 after he experienced a lack of energy. He currently is receiving benefits through disability. 

For much of his life, Zech said, he continued to live at home with his parents.

His father died in the early 1990s and his mother died in 2003.

“When Dad was alive, I helped Mom take care of him, and after he died, I stayed and helped take care of Mom,” he said.  

Zech moved to his Fort Atkinson apartment in 2006.

Keeping Fort informed

Zech said that while he always has enjoyed learning, he is not always comfortable around large groups of people. 

“I like to go to events, but I like doing things on my own,” he said. 

His living room is his information center. A large-screen TV serves as a sort of command module as he combs through informational sites. Scanner chatter occasionally breaks the silence of the room. 

He enjoys looking through online information and finding items he believes will keep Fort Atkinson residents informed, he said.  

He began his Memory Lane Facebook page in 2012, and counts among his motivations a lifelong love of Fort Atkinson, along with the influence of friends. 

One such friend lived across the street from the former high school. The building underwent renovations in the 1990s and the friend took pictures when an original portion on the building’s north side was razed. Today, the building houses Fort Atkinson Middle School. 

Revisiting the old photos, Zech recalled, was fun. 

“There is a part of that that just gives people a good feeling,” he said.

He also was inspired by a second friend who related her feelings about time she spent with her father just before he died. They found solace and bonding as they shared common memories, Zech said. 

He said he began looking for Fort Atkinson-related photos and memorabilia online, visiting such sites as the Wisconsin Historical Society. He soon developed a list of sites where he could find informational tidbits about Fort Atkinson. 

“I know people are smiling and laughing, and maybe even crying, when they look at these old photos,” he said. 

When Zech began developing the Memory Lane page, he said, he also attended events. He has a DSLR camera and a camcorder. 

He initially purchased his camera to take pictures of birds visiting his birdfeeder. 

“Having the events, that fills in, and does a good service for the community,” he said.

Over time, he adjusted his schedule, continuing to attend as his health allowed. 

“If I was feeling good, I’d go,” he said. 

In the beginning, Zech spent up to eight hours each day looking for things to post. Now, with so many people aware of his page, information comes to him. 

“I get emails and sometimes calls. There is so much there I can’t even read it all,” he said. 

Some topics bring what he calls “hotspots,” and result in a flurry of activity on his page. He said hotspots are usually created by news of criminality or disasters. 

On the obituary page, which was started last year, Zech subscribes to a routine: After checking various sites, every night at 6 p.m. he posts the day’s obituaries. 

Zech said he plans to maintain his Facebook pages for as long as he’s able. 

“I’ll live in Fort, unless I win the lottery, and then I might be a snowbird of some kind. I will do this until I can’t do it,” he said.

But Zech added that he sometimes wonders: “Who will put my obituary up?”