A Packers fan and avid fisherman. A Navy veteran who worked on submarines. A grandpa of two who always waved to his neighbors. A father of two small kids. An electrician who played in the golf league at a local bar.
More details emerged Friday about the lives of five men who were working at Molson Coors Brewing Co. on Wednesday when they were killed by a co-worker, who then turned a gun on himself. The motive for 51-year-old Anthony Ferrill’s attack hasn’t been released, but as police continue to investigate, family and friends are remembering those whose lives were cut short.
DALE HUDSON, 60, WAUKESHA
Known as “Huddy” by his friends, Dale Hudson was an electrician at Molson Coors and a regular at an area bar.
Kim Thompson, owner of Kim’s Lakeside in the Town of Delafield, said she saw Hudson every Wednesday and she always had bottles of Miller High Life Light chilling for him so they would be nice and icy - just the way he liked them - when he stopped by after work.
“He would have a couple High Life Lights and an Italian beef sandwich,” she said. “It was a thing.”
Thompson said Hudson was a good man and participated in all of the bar’s outings, including a golf league, annual bowling tournament and a fishing tournament.
In fact, she said, Hudson was the first one to sign up for this year’s fishing tournament on Lake Pewaukee, which is scheduled for Saturday. The tournament will go on, she said, but has been renamed the “Huddy Fishery” and will be held in Hudson’s memory.
“He was just part of the fabric of our bar community,” she said.
Thompson said she changed the tournament posters and plans to have a memory board with pictures of Hudson and a place for people to jot down memories. The board and donations will go to Hudson’s family.
According to a LinkedIn page in Hudson’s name, he had been an electrician at Miller Coors since 2008, and attended MATC Milwaukee, WCTC Pewaukee and the University of Phoenix. A Facebook profile in his name said he is married that he attended Elkhorn Area High School. He was also a hunter, and his Facebook page features several hunting photos.
GENNADY “GENE” LEVSHETZ, 61, MEQUON
Gennady “Gene” Levshetz was a grandfather of two, a helpful neighbor and a Ukrainian immigrant who came to Mequon in the early 1990s.
Jim Malcom, a former neighbor who worked in Miller Brewing’s corporate divisions, told the Journal Sentinel that Levshetz had earned degrees in Ukraine and worked for a few years for Goodwill Industries and other organizations before he asked Malcom if he could work at the brewery. Malcom recommended him for a job.
“People always said he was overqualified for his job,” Malcom told the newspaper. “But he was a great electrician.”
Levshetz’s family released a statement asking for privacy, saying they are “devastated by the loss of their deeply loved husband, father, grandfather, brother, and uncle.” They called his death an “unimaginable loss.”
Levshetz’s online death notice said he has two children and two grandchildren and would be remembered as a “kind, caring, and giving person who always put his family’s needs before his own.”
Levshetz’s neighbor, Martha Siegman, told The Associated Press that he was quiet and peaceful, and that he would use his snowblower to help out others, and wave every time he left the driveway. Siegman said Levshetz was also particular about his yard and loved to run his lawnmower. She said she called him “Grandpa.”
DANA WALK, 57, DELAFIELD
Dana Walk was an avid fisherman and Green Bay Packers’ fan who loved spending time with his family on a nearby lake, according to a death notice. Walk is survived by his wife of 35 years, as well as a son and two daughters.
“He was always listening to his music while working on his hobbies, home projects and anything he could do to help others,” his death notice said. “His family will miss Dana’s backseat coaching of the Packers to another Super Bowl.”
Several people who commented on his online obituary mentioned that he talked often about fishing and ice boating. The online death notice features a picture of him holding up fish, and his Facebook page shows pictures of him fishing and ice fishing, as well as photos of ice boating.
He was a graduate of Kettle Moraine High School. Tom Koepp, a friend of Walk’s for about 10 years, told the Journal Sentinel: “He really spent all his free time, any minute he could, on the lake fishing.”
JESUS VALLE, JR., 33, MILWAUKEE
Jesus Valle, Jr., was a husband and father of two small children, according to a woman who identified herself as his sister, but did not give her name. She declined to comment further.
He was being remembered on social media as a nice guy. Matt Carr posted on Facebook that he worked out with Valle weekly at the company gym after work, and that they’ve shared hundreds of conversations over the years. “He was such a nice guy and he never had anything negative to say,” Carr wrote.
TREVOR WETSELAAR, 33, MILWAUKEE
Trevor Wetselaar was a Navy veteran and graduate of the University of Wisconsin who has been an engine room operator with Molson Coors since June 2018.
According to a LinkedIn page in Wetselaar’s name, he had also worked as a nuclear reactor operator with the U.S. Navy. The LinkedIn profile says he was a submarine qualified leading petty officer of a reactor control division on board a U.S. Navy submarine.
University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Becky Blank tweeted that Wetselaar graduated from the university in 2009 with a degree in political science. A Wisconsin alumni magazine class update published in 2012 confirmed he was serving in the Navy.
One friend, Andrew Moriarity, told the Journal Sentinel that Wetselaar’s job at Molson Coors was his “dream job” that allowed him to move home.
___
Associated Press writers Gretchen Ehlke, Carrie Antlfinger and Steve Megaree in Milwaukee, Tim Sullivan in Minneapolis, Tammy Webber in Chicago, Scott Bauer in Madison, and news researchers Monika Mathur and Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this report.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.