Staff photo by Fritz Busch A family reunion for the Sellners, Schumachers and Dietz families included 68 people at Ross Park Apartments in Sleepy Eye Saturday.

SLEEPY EYE — Georgeen Dietz said it’s been quite a while since the Dietz, Schumacher and Sellner families got together.

“We used to get together at Thanksgiving, Christmas and funerals,” she said.

Mary Kay (Schumacher) Morris wanted to have a family reunion so she helped arrange a reunion at Ross Park Apartments today,” said Goergeen.

No less than 68 family members reunited. Some of them came from western Oregon. Most of them didn’t travel anywhere near as far.

In order to more easily determine who was who, the Dietzes wore red shirts, the Sellner’s yellow shirts and the Schumachers wore blue shirts.

Georgeen Dietz, 92, said the family tree goes back to Joe and Louisa Dietz.

“They had four children. Helen married a Sellner. Clarence ‘Spud’ married me. I was a Dietz. Donna married a Schumacher. One never married,” she said.

Georgeen’s oldest son, Alan Dietz, a 1972 Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s graduate, drove from Green Lake, near Spicer in a bit more than an hour.

He helped erect towers for Utility Tower Company based in Oklahoma City, Ok from 1974-80.

“I went to St. Cloud State University for a year before I started erecting towers. The Godahl tower fell in 1975. I met the tower crew in Sleepy Eye and built towers with them for five years before I started by own company building TV, radio and cell phone towers,” said Alan Dietz.

He said the Godahl tower blew down because it had to much ice on it.

“Towers didn’t have ice ratings in Minnesota until the mid 1980s,” said Dietz.

Gary Dietz came the furthest for the reunion, traveling from Florence, Ore.

He talked about how he wound up in Oregon.

“My wife and I were stationed in the U.S. Army in Germany in 1981. We both drove trucks. We took three weeks of training together. We started dating and came back here and then to Oregon for Thanksgiving. After four years in the Army, we moved to hometown, Florence, Ore.

Mary Kay (Schumacher) Morris finished fourth in the two mile at the 1981 Minnesota State High School Track Championships and held the school two mile run record for many years. She said she lifts weights to stay in shape these days.