Walter Albert Besecke III, 80, of Schaumburg passed unexpectedly at his home in Friendship Village on Nov 7, 2019.
Walt was born in 1939 in Kansas City, Mo., to Walter A. Besecke Jr., and Helen M. Besecke. He graduated from Shawnee Mission High School in 1957, earned bachelor’s degrees in engineering and business from Kansas State University in 1963, and enjoyed a 30-year career in communications technology with Sears Technology Services and IBM.
On Aug. 16, 1963, Walt married his college sweetheart, Penny. The couple lived in the Chicago area after their wedding and, after the birth of their daughter Leslie, moved to New Jersey and later Pennsylvania, where their daughter Kelly was born. They returned to the Chicago area in 1983.
Walt was a devoted husband and father and the bedrock of his family. He enjoyed golf, his grandchildren’s sporting events, mystery novels, British comedy, clever television shows, interesting technology, his family’s dogs and Chicago sports teams. He had a dry sense of humor and enjoyed a good pun. As a young father, he supported his children’s learning by taking them to national historical sites and watching “Cosmos” and other educational television shows with them. Following his early retirement in 1993, he enjoyed traveling; he and Penny toured the UK, regularly visited northern Wisconsin in the autumn, and for 10 years spent winter months in the Tampa Bay area. In recent decades, Walt particularly enjoyed meeting a small group of local friends every week for golf, breakfast and good conversation.
He was a dedicated caregiver to Penny in her journey with Alzheimer’s Disease. He was preceded in death by Penny and his parents.
Walt is survived by his daughters, Leslie M. (Anish Chatterjee) Besecke of Hinsdale and Kelly S. Besecke; his grandchildren, Alyson, Julia and Evan Chatterjee; his friends, Abhay and Nisha Chatterjee and their family; his extended family; and his many dear friends from Kansas City, Mo., Hatboro, Pa., and Schaumburg.
The family is planning a memorial service in the Chicago area in the coming months. His ashes will be buried privately in a family plot in Forest Hill Cemetery in Kansas City.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Elgin Symphony. 20 DuPage Court, Elgin, IL 60120 (online at https://www.elginsymphony.org); or to the Al Larson Prairie Center for the Arts at 201 Schaumburg Court, Schaumburg, IL 60193 or (online at https://www.villageofschaumburg.com/depts/cultural/pca.)
