Thomas G. Umhoefer

Tom Umhoefer, treasured father and husband, accomplished architect and family historian, died peacefully March 23, 2025, following a cancer diagnosis.

His passing at 89 closely followed the death last year of his beloved wife Peg (Maureen Margaret McArthur).

Tom’s prolific forebears populated and farmed Menomonee Falls near Milwaukee as Wisconsin’s statehood began. Benedikt and Margaretha Umhoefer, Tom’s great-great grandparents, emigrated in 1848 to the state from rural Bavaria (inspiring Tom’s custom license plate: “BU 1848”).

On display to this day in Old Falls Village in Menomonee Falls is a tiny log cabin that was home to one of Benedikt’s sons, Gregor Umhoefer, his wife Anna Maria (Eichen) and their eight children in the Civil War era.

Tom was born February 22, 1936, in Wausau to Benedikt’s great-grandson Edward Paul Umhoefer and Mary Grace (Sippl). He grew up with two older siblings, a brother, Alfred, and a sister, Mary.

Tom excelled in school and met Peggy McArthur, a classmate who would become his wife for 65 years. In summer jobs, he flexed his muscles, packing peas at a cannery, hauling rocks at a paper mill, and clearing weeds on a pine-tree plantation.

The couple started a family as Tom finished a degree in architecture (structural engineering emphasis) at the University of Illinois. They moved to La Crosse in 1960 for his first job, eventually settling happily in Wedgewood Terrace in the town of Shelby just outside the city.

At work, Tom designed the “skeleton” of buildings such as the US Post Office in La Crosse, the remodeled Federal Building-Courthouse in Milwaukee, and myriad factories, warehouses, schools, clinics, churches and university buildings. Early in the 1960s he helped atomic experts certify radiation fallout shelters in public buildings.

In the community, Tom held volunteer leadership positions at St. Thomas More Catholic Church and Aquinas High School, where the family’s five children were educated.

Tom’s relaxation zone was his 400-square-foot garden nourished by a big compost pile. He was conservation- and health-minded, pushing recycling and healthy eating.

Tom and Peg instilled a love of the outdoors, leading dozens of camping treks across Wisconsin and western states that created lifelong memories and stories.

Space exploration and science/nature fascinated and drove his reading and collecting habits -- as witnessed by his comprehensive set of National Geographic magazines. He assembled an impressive collection of every Nero Wolfe mystery novel and Prince Valiant comic strip.

Tom created - without the aid of computers - a complex formula to determine the best hitters in Major League Baseball using a single statistic. He named it BARP, the acronym for Batter Advancer Runner Points.

In retirement, he and Peg went on a satisfying genealogical quest tracing each of their families back to Europe. Eventually, they moved from La Crosse to a senior community in Wauwatosa just eight miles from the original Umhoefer land in Menomonee Falls.

Perhaps the pinnacle of their hobby was a triumphant local reunion of 300 Umhoefers (and Umhofers) from across America and the world, at which Tom displayed a 40-foot-long chart dating back centuries.

International reunion-goers led the group in singing "Du, Du Liegst Mir Im Herzen” (You Are in My Heart). You’ll be forever in ours, Dad.

Tom is survived by children Mark (Susan Hepola) of Summit, Dave (Gretchen Schuldt) of Waunakee, John (Sara DeHaan) of Madison, Anne (Pete) Ericksen of De Pere, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Maureen, son Robert (Andrea), parents Edward and Mary, sister Mary, and brothers Alfred and Edward.

Please consider a tribute donation to the Menomonee Falls Historical Society. Mail check to the society at P.O. Box 91, Menomonee Falls, WI 53052. Write either “Thomas Umhoefer” and/or “Umhoefer Cabin” in the memo line.