Members of Peter Achermann’s family this week made a statement the best place they knew how: on the Leader rock on Highway 64. This landmark has been used for years to send a message, with this perhaps one of the more powerful ones in a long time. (Submitted photo) The Peter Achermann family, unwilling and unable to grieve the loss of their husband and father, has found some solace in just reminiscing about the man they knew as ‘Dad.’

“He was a student of life, our oldest son John is a lot like that,” DeLaine Achermann said of her husband.

They’ve read and re-read a life history that Peter started working on years ago. Peter ended it with a page about what he’d like his funeral to be like.

He wrote that he wanted it to be a celebration, not a mourning, of his life. If in the summer, he wanted everyone to relax in someone’s yard under the shade of a big tree after the church service. He suggested a cold keg of beer would be appropriate.

If in the winter, he suggested a similar atmosphere, only inside with a warm beverage or two.

A Swiss immigrant born the same day that Charles Lindbergh flew the Atlantic (May 21, 1927), he always blamed Lindbergh for stealing the spotlight from his birth.

While a farmer, logger and heavy equipment operator most of his life, Peter was an avid reader and philosopher on any subject. He spoke Swiss, French and English but his formal education was cut short by conscripted service in the Swiss Army during World War II.

Years later, he jumped at the chance to attend classes at Brainerd’s Central Lakes College when his own children needed transportation to get there. He loved to read, especially about current affairs, in newspapers and news magazines. He normally was reading a book or two at any one time.

He loved to find someone else willing to debate on some topic or another.

DeLaine recalled here was no such thing as a short conversation with her husband. “There was never a yes or no answer, but always a circle. He always had to give the full background before he gave the answer.”

She put her foot down on one occasion. She was working for Bi-County CAP and driving most days to their offices in Bemidji. Peter thought that would be a great opportunity for him to ride along and take some classes at Bemidji State University while she worked. DeLaine said no.

“That would have been just too much time with him lecturing. Way too much.”

Peter was immensely proud of his Swiss heritage and his family connections. They hosted a family reunion at their home north of Leader in the late 1980s, attended by several relatives from Switzerland. A brother who now lives in California is in Minnesota this week visiting. Later this fall they expect friends from Switzerland to come here as well.

He always wore one of two kinds of hats, a beret or his trademark floppy hat. He brought the first one from France, she said. When it wore out, she started making them. “I

must have made 100’s

of them,” DeLaine said. “Peter always said they

were very useful. You could carry your lunch or wipe the sweat off your forehead with them.”

Desiree recalled her father always provided the children with handkerchiefs as he almost always carried two hankies. When the Achermann kids filled a pew at Motley’s St. Michael’s Church, whispered words often passed down the row: “We need a hanky. We’d blow our nose and send it back to him.”