Keith Hauck

Keith Wayne Hauck was born on November 8, 1960. He was the third child of Helmer and Flo Hauck. His brother, Ken is the oldest, then Pam, and Paula was his younger sister. Keith's family lived in Fridley, Minnesota except for a one year period when they lived in Colorado Springs, CO. Keith graduated from Fridley High School in 1979. While at Fridley High, Keith was a wrestler. In fact, he was captain of his Wrestling Team during his senior year at Fridley. He lead his team to the State Championship that year. During the tournament, he didn't focus on the individual tournament which he might have been able to win, he focused on the team tournament. Which is a great example of how he would place the efforts of others over his individual efforts most of his life. Keith received a wrestling scholarship to Bismark Jr. College in North Dakota. College wasn't his thing so he returned to Fridley after his first year.
Keith joined the US Air Force in 1980. Just days before reporting to the Military Entrance & Processing Station he had injured his shoulder (doing who knows what) but because of his love for his country and his desire to serve he still reported. However, he was sent home and told to recover and come back at a later date. Keith's first assignment after Basic Training was to Clark AFB in the Philippines. While in the Philippines, Keith met the love of his life, Theresa Clark. They spent the next 31 years of their lives devoted to each other. Theresa had 5 children when Keith met her, Ana & Anthony (the twins), Michael, Kenny and Matt. In 1983, along came Tania. The Christmas before she was born, Keith told his parents that he had met a wonderful girl and was in love. However, he didn't tell them that he had a new 'large' family and they had a baby on the way. They did not know about their new grandchildren until a week after Tania was born and Keith finally told them about his new family. They returned to the US in May of 1983 and that's when his family met his "new family". Keith and Theresa adopted Mercy, Theresa's niece, in 1987, completing their already "large" family.
Keith moved his new family to Utah, Hill AFB, that year. The day he learned of his upcoming transfer to Okinawa, Japan, he called Theresa in the morning and said "hey, want to go to Japan with me? If so, we have to get married today." Theresa hung up and said she'd call him back. She called him back and they were married by noon at the Justice of the Peace. They all moved to Japan in the Spring of 1985, then Keith got out of the military and returned to Minnesota in 1989. When Keith returned, he worked for his father while he looked for other work. He moved to Washington State to build houses with his father and was finally accepted by United Airlines. They moved to San Francisco where he worked for United as an airline mechanic. When he was laid off, he returned to Minnesota again. After being rehired by United, he worked in Chicago while living in MN. He would "commute" to Chicago each day and return to MN each morning. After being laid off again by United, Keith sold cars and insurance and they found a job he loved at Jefferson Bus Lines. He took pride in his job managing the bus maintenance and dispatch. He would still be working there if he could. Keith built a home in Cottage Grove where they lived for 10 years. Then he built his new home in Darwin, MN where Keith and Teresa have lived since 2005.
Keith was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, glioblastoma in the fall of 2009. He spent the last two years fighting this tumor but his battle ended December 3rd at the Veteran's Hospital in St. Cloud, MN.