Harold George Breisacher, Jr.

Dad knew there was nothing more to be done to help him "run faster or jump higher" and he took his last breath on July 23, 2024.   He and Mom and Jack and Jan are having a grand reunion.

Harold George Breisacher, Jr. was born in Toledo on November 7, 1927.  His father was a semi-professional baseball player and the family bounced back and forth between Toledo and Detroit, finally settling on Macomber Street in Toledo, where Dad graduated from DeVilbiss High School. Despite his enjoyment of football, he decided to focus his time at high school on his love for playing baseball and basketball, (rather than getting tackled). Dad always loved telling the story of his father's team, the Detroit Altes, making it to the National Amateur Baseball Tournament in Washington, DC in 1939.

Dad enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1946 and was a cryptographer during his time in the service. Cryptography fed his love of reading, words, and language. He worked the daily New York Times crossword in pen until just a few years ago, and it aggravated him to no end when the Toledo Blade started publishing the puzzle solutions next to their puzzle. Fortunately, he was able to make a template to cover the answers while he worked the puzzle. 

If you ever met our Dad, you were forever known to him as honey-girl or bud - he could not remember a name for any man's money. That didn't stop him from being a great salesman. He started his long career with Sears Roebuck at the store in downtown Toledo and had great stories about managing the toy department, especially the frantic last-minute shoppers on Christmas Eve Day. Dad became assistant manager of the brand-new store at Great Eastern Shopping Center and finished his career with Sears at the Woodville Mall managing several departments, and eventually retiring from the auto department. He dabbled in a few things after retirement, mostly working with friends in the antiques world.

In 1960 we moved to Walbridge, where Dad stayed until moving to Oakleaf Village in 2021. Our family attended what is now First St. John Lutheran Church on Seaman Street. Mom and Dad were among a group of St. John parishioners who joined together to form a new congregation and built Calvary Lutheran Church in Northwood. They were founding members of Calvary, where Dad helped with the building finish work and sat on the church council. Both Mom and Dad sang in the choir and were active members for many years.

Dad and his dear friend Jack Strantz coached little league baseball in Walbridge and Dad did a stint helping coach girls’ softball. That left him shaking his head at times when those of us who weren't sports-oriented ran away from a line drive rather than towards it.

After family, Dad's greatest love was golf (he did love his family more than golf, really). He and Jack played golf together at least once a week, well into their 80s. Dad and Jack traveled together and played several of the golf courses designed and built by Jack's son Mike Strantz, an award-winning golf course architect.

When Dad decided it was time to hang up his car keys, he bought a golf cart, got it road-worthy, and cruised Walbridge nearly every day unless it was raining or snowing. It gave him a chance to wave or stop and chat with folks along the way. He'd also drive next door to sit on the porch with his good friends and amazing neighbors Robin and Gary. Dad loved to talk - his favorite topics were books, music, sports, and politics. He loved to learn and loved to teach his family, children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. We are forever thankful for that.

If you met him, you loved him. He was a gentle soul with a big heart and a kind word for everyone he crossed paths with. He always said, "I want to make sure everyone I meet during the day has a better day because of our encounter". If anyone asked how he was doing, his answer was always, "I'm in good shape for the shape I'm in".

He is survived by daughters Cathy Ray, Patricia (Jimmy) Geschke, Cindy (Thomas) Bland;  niece/other daughter Sherrill (Richard) Saylor. Granddaughters Julie (Mike) Pozonitz and family, Stacy (Eric) Clark and family, Lindsay (Jon) Cozze and family, Megan (Kurt) Olesen and family. And brother Larry (Lynette) Breisacher.

Dad was predeceased by his parents Harold and Emma (Holtcamp) Breisacher, Sr., wife Lois (Page) Breisacher, sister Kathleen DeLine, and nephew Greg DeLine.

Dad loved living at Oakleaf Village and we are grateful to everyone there who made his last couple of years happy and comfortable. Thanks also to Ayden Wauseon and Heartland Hospice for helping his passing to be free of pain and for helping us let him go. Online condolences to

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Harold George Breisacher, Jr., please visit our floral store.