COMFREY–Peter Windschitl of rural Comfrey, Minnesota passed away peacefully at Banner Baywood Hospital in Mesa, Arizona at the age of 86 on February 11th, 2025, with his wife, Lois, and their 4 children at his side. He passed away one day shy of their 59th wedding anniversary.

Mass of Christian burial will be at 11 a.m. on Thursday, February 20, 2025 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Sleepy Eye with Father Nathan Hansen officiating. Burial will follow in the Church of Japanese Martyr’s Cemetery in Leavenworth. A visitation will be held from 4-7 p.m. on Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at Minnesota Valley Funeral Home – NORTH chapel and will continue Thursday morning from 10-11 a.m at St. Mary’s Church in Sleepy Eye. To leave an online condolence for his family, or to sign the guestbook, go to: mvfh.org

Peter is survived by wife, Lois; children and their spouses, Tim Windschitl of Comfrey, MN, Tami (Doug) Gardner of Eagle Lake, MN, Troy (Deb Kruse) Windschitl of Comfrey, MN, and Teri (Chris) Ebert of Rochester, MN; brother-in-law Lloyd Platz of Tempe, Arizona; sister-in-law Bernetta Windschitl of Cold Spring, MN; grandsons Josh Gardner (Hope Kilmer) of Mankato, MN and Brett Gardner (Isabelle Schott) of Mankato, MN; and many nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents Florian and Anna; siblings and their spouses, Leonard (Delores) Windschitl, Gilbert (Marlene) Windschitl, and Marie (Mel) Cook; and brothers Herbert and Leo.

Peter Myron Windschitl was born on November 2nd, 1938 to Florian and Anna (Moldan) Windschitl in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota. He was the youngest of 6 children, and attended country school in Mulligan Township. After finishing 8th grade, he helped work on the family farm in Mulligan Township. At a young age he went to work for Mathiowetz Construction of Leavenworth, Minnesota as he continued to work part-time as a farmer. He eventually went into farming full-time, milking cows and expanding the number of acres he farmed over the years. Farming is something he greatly enjoyed doing, and he had a keen sense for identifying grain market niches over the years for specialty crops to raise such as waxy corn and food-grade soybeans and how to market them. He also raised peas and sweet corn for Del Monte in Sleepy Eye for many years and seed corn for Dekalb Seed Company for a few years. He was a past board member of the Brown County Soybean Association and the Southern Minnesota Irrigators’ Association. He and Lois were also co-owners of the Western Wear Corral Clothing store in Sleepy Eye, MN for 7 years with friends Jerry and Mary Sellner.

Peter met the love of his life, Lois Platz, of rural Springfield, Minnesota in 1965 and were married at St Raphael’s Church in Springfield, Minnesota on February 12th, 1966. He lived and worked with Lois on the 2nd generation family farm in Mulligan Township for his entire life, and they raised 4 children together.

He was an avid collector of all things farming-related and history-related, especially known for his collection of belt buckles and Case-IH toy farm machinery.

Peter and Lois loved to travel, having visited many states of the United States as well as the countries of Mexico, Canada, Cuba, Panama, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. He was interested in his family history and was pleased to have met and got to know Windschüttl descendants of the half-brother of his grandfather John Windschitl in Germany who invited and hosted them at their homes in Germany on a trip to Europe in 2003.

For the last several summers of his life he enjoyed camping on weekends at a seasonal campsite at Green Lake near Spicer, MN. He was known for his large campfires & often referred to as “King of the Campfire” by many. He loved to entertain the many guests that would stop and visit.

They often took short winter vacations to Arizona over the years, staying with Lois’ brother Lloyd, and in 2012 bought a home in Mesa, Arizona, where they enjoyed spending their winters in retirement up to the time of Pete’s death. They welcomed many guests through the years and enjoyed visiting with all.

He was a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Sleepy Eye, where he was also a member of the Knights of Columbus council there.

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