Age 63 of St. Paul
Passed away on May 14, 2025. Preceded in death by parents, Melvin & Janet; brother, Fritz. Survived by children, Nicole (Ken) & Rico (Becca); sisters, Veronica Gelting & Ann (Ken) Schramm; grandchildren, Joseph, Kiera, Luciano, Isaliya; niece, Bernadette; nephew, Walter; also many other relatives and friends.
From Nick’s loved ones:
NIKKI
He could make friends with anyone. Everywhere he went he brought joy and good humor with him. He loved to joke, his puns were the best.
He enjoyed skiing and riding his bike, muscle cars, Mexican food, and good music.
There is so much more to him, but I can’t seem to find the words to express the enormous hole that his passing has left in this world. He was one of a kind.
RICO
Nick always made you feel like you were special, like you’re the most important person in the room. He always had jokes or a funny story to share, always so positive all the time and encouraging you to be the best you that you can be.
VERONICA
Nick loved teasing people. He could make puns about almost anything instantly. It was his daily goal in life to make at least one person laugh, especially if they were having a bad day, to try to lighten their load and make their day a little brighter.
Some days he could be pretty grumpy himself, but on most days he succeeded in cheering up the people around him.
He and our younger brother Fritz both learned how to cook from our dad — they were really good at it and often cooked together for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter dinners. He was famous for his seafood soup.
He read all the Louis L’Amour and Zane Gray novels. His favorite genres were action, spy, and detective stories.
He was also an excellent writer. His stories about mountain forest fires were riveting!
He learned how to ride out West. He once wrote a story about a mare he frequently rode named Vale, who was hard to ride if you didn’t know her tricks, such as trying to scrape unsuspecting riders off her back by pinning their leg against a corral rail!
He loved working as a forest firefighter in the state of Oregon. He learned how to use specialized equipment so that his crew could work longer and earn more. If he saw new firefighters struggling to do their jobs, he would teach them techniques to make their work easier, safer, and faster. He would teach new crews constructing fire breaks how to work as a team instead of as individuals— for example, working relay-style, while keeping their lines straight as they dug by spotting ahead and choosing a tree to mark with a bright rag.
As a truck driver, Nick joked and teased and turned strangers into friends across America: Waitresses, road-work crews, weigh-station officials, highway patrol officers, fellow truckers at road stop diners — they all greeted Nick with big smiles. And if they didn’t have a smile on their face, he would put one there.
He only lived for a couple of years at the John Carroll Senior High-Rise before he had a stroke that forced his move into nursing care facilities, but he made friends throughout the building. Many people continue to ask about him after he moved away.
BARB
When I think of Nick, I think of the phrase, “He liked a good joke.” As his friend, I appreciate that he had the same dry sense of Iowa humor that I had.
Nick and his siblings were more devoted to each other than so many, many other families I have known. Living in the same building as his sister, Ronnie, I often think of how a couple of times a week, either he was at her apartment or she was at his. I think he took a great deal of comfort in living down the hall from his sister.
Very often, if Ronnie and I went to his apartment, he would be writing a story on his computer. If we asked, “What is it about?” He would smile slyly and say, “I can’t tell you that. It’s not finished yet.” I would tell him, “Come on, Nick, you could be the next Hemingway, so tell us!” But he would just laugh.
He was proud of his sisters, Ronnie and Ann, and his brother Fritz; they were a close family unit. And he was very proud of his kids, Nicole and Rico, and his grandkids. A memory of Nick always brings a smile to my face.
ANN
After I told Nick last April that our brother Fritz had passed away, he would repeat over and over, for weeks, “Fritz is gone?” I feel the same way about Nick, as well as Fritz. We have so many memories growing up, I don’t know where to start. I’m just going to piggy-back on the above; however, a couple things come to mind. When ordering at restaurants he would always order a basket of $100 bills, a Ferrari and a super model. Also, we both played trombone in band and when I was a senior and he was a junior, I got first chair. Truth is, he was a better player than me, and I know I got first chair because I was a senior. He loved music, especially Jazz.
Nick finished up two years of college at Macalester in St. Paul. He then went out west to Oregon to fight forest fires on a crew. When returning to Minnesota, he had various jobs: semi-truck driver, maintenance work, security guard, bike shop sales and repair, more semi-truck driving as an owner-operator, etc. His greatest job, however, was being a brother-father-grandfather-uncle-friend; and as you can see, the common theme in these threads is he liked to make people laugh; and like my father, had some really dumb puns.
I miss my brothers, I will miss Nick.
Visitation 4:00 -7:00 pm Wednesday, May 21st at Roberts Funeral Home, 8108 Barbara Ave., Inver Grove Heights, MN. Mass of Christian Burial 10:30 am Thursday, May 22nd at the Church of the Holy Trinity, 749 6th Ave. S., South St. Paul with visitation 9:30-10:30 am prior to Mass at church. Interment Resurrection Cemetery, Mendota Heights.
CAKE, COFFEE & SANDWICHES, Served after Interment (Room open at 12:30), Inver Grove Community Center, Room #1, 8055 Barbara Ave., Inver Grove Heights, MN 55077.