Obituary of Roland H. Preszler

Roland Herbert Preszler was born on October 12, 1932 on a farm a couple miles southeast of Menno, South Dakota. He was the second of two sons born to Herbert & Helen (Koerner) Preszler. They lived there until the fall of 1939 and then moved to the family homestead two and a half miles north of Menno.

Roland attended grade school at Hoff 44 which was located a half mile from their farm where he graduated from the eighth grade and then immediately began farming with his father and brother, Clifford.

From 1954 to1956, Roland served his country in the US Army and was stationed for a time in El Paso, Texas and then served as a fireman near Fairbanks, Alaska which he enjoyed revisiting a couple years ago.  After being honorably discharged in 1956, he returned to the farm.

On December 16th, 1956, he married the love of his life, Alma H. Guericke, at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church near Clayton, SD and to this union they were blessed with two daughters, Charlene & Cynthia.  After a honeymoon trip to Mexico, they farmed most of their married life on the family homestead two and a half miles north of Menno. In 2000, Roland and Alma retired from farming and moved to their house on Alfalfa Street in Menno.  Unfortunately, Alma passed away unexpectedly in her sleep in January 2008.  In 2013 Roland decided that he wanted to continue his retirement by moving to an apartment in Yankton.  During his retirement in both Menno and Yankton, he enjoyed coffee times with good friends, playing pool and pinochle and watching Twins baseball games.  In addition, he enjoyed spending time with his four grandsons and traveling with his family to countries in Europe, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Hawaii, Alaska and enjoyed a western Mediterranean cruise and a Canary Islands cruise.

Roland is survived by his daughters, Charlene Bartolo of The Woodlands, TX and Cynthia Preszler-Mack of Fort Myers, FL; sons-in-law, Gregg Bartolo of The Woodlands, TX and Dave Mack of Fort Myers, FL; grandsons, Vincent, Alexander, Charles and Andrew Bartolo all of The Woodlands, TX; sisters-in-law:  Alice Holzwarth of Freeman, SD, Lena Winter of Mitchell, SD, Carol Guericke of Las Vega, NV, and Arlene Guericke of Mitchell, SD and brothers-in-law, Gilbert Guericke of Las Vegas, NV and Eldon Guericke of Sioux Falls, SD plus many nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. 

Roland was preceded in death by his wife, Alma H. Preszler; father, Herbert H. Preszler; mother, Helen Preszler; brother, Clifford Preszler; mother-in-law, Alice Guericke; father-in law, Arthur Guericke, Sr.; brothers-in-law, John Holzwarth, Arthur Guericke, Jr. and Maynard Winter. 

Roland’s sister-in-law, Arlene Preszler, passed away on May 9, 2019.