Wally Bronner dies of cancer at 81

FRANKENMUTH (WJRT) -- (04/02/08)-- Mid-Michigan has lost a leader and a legend. Wally Bronner is dead. Bronner, the founder of Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, lost his battle with cancer late Tuesday.

You'll soon see red and green ribbons throughout Frankenmuth. It's a small gesture to honor the life of Bronner.

Wednesday morning, his family confirmed the 81-year-old lost his battle with inoperable cancer on Tuesday.

On Easter Sunday, Bronner announced in a letter to his staff his belief that, quote: "Our loving Lord and Savior, the Christ of Christmas, was ready to receive (him) into his Heavenly Kingdom."

The news, however, caught many off guard, in town and in the store. Employees arrived to find a letter from the family, informing them of Bronner's death.

The business, however, carried on, with signs posted to inform customers of the founder's death.

The news spread quickly within the business community, and has many remembering a man known for entrepreneurship, character, quick wit and devotion to the city.

"He was just a rare animal. He was part showman, part missionary, part public speaker, part master retailer. But he's going to be sorely missed by this community," said Zehnder's of Frankenmuth CEO Al Zehnder.

"He'll be missed by the church. He'll be missed by the general business community.

"He was the No. 1 cheerleader and supporter of this community. He traveled the world and always sang the praises of Frankenmuth."

Funeral services will take place at 10 a.m. on Monday at the Cederberg Funeral Home of Frankenmuth, 590 N. Franklin St. and 11 a.m. at St. Lorenz Lutheran Church.

Rev. Mark D. Brandt will officiate with burial between services in St. Lorenz Cemetery.

Bronner's family will receive visitors at the funeral home on Saturday from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 6 p.m. and on Monday from 9 a.m. until the time of service.

Instead of flowers, the family asked that memorials be sent to several local organizations, including the Salvation Army and the city's beautification fund.

Bronner's 81 years have been filled with faith, fun, family and friends all around the world.

God-given talents. That's what many would say are responsible for the successes in life of Bronner.

It's talent that earned him success in business as the creator of Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, the world's biggest Christmas store.

Artistic talent gave him the ability as a 16 year old to create professional-looking signs. But even more, he had a gift in connecting with people.

He learned the principals of connecting with people and satisfying customers when he was just 12 years old, working as a clerk in his Aunt Hattie Hubinger's grocery story at Tuscola and Main in Frankenmuth.

In 1943, the 16 year old found his talent for painting signs, working on them after school in his parent's basement. Area farmers snatched them up to identify their barns.

By the time he graduated from high school in 1945, the sign work had grown and he found people would pay good money for them. It's the same year he met Irene Pretzer.

"It was at a Walther League Field Day at St. Lorenz Church Grove in Frankenmuth, and we were playing various games with about 1,000 in attendance, and somehow, she was the one," Bronner said.

Pretzer was a teacher and Bronner courted her for six years. He also spent that time turning his hobby of making signs into a livelihood.

In 1951, he married Pretzer, and four years later, they built their first permanent building for Bronner's.

After years of growth, Bronner's idea for the Christmas spirit year round finally, in 1977, took him to 45 acres at the south end of Frankenmuth, a building that's expanded several times since and is now run by several of his children.

Through the years, he's always called the business his hobby, focusing on the Christ of Christmas. He's stressed his faith every step of the way.

But he's had a lot of fun with it, too, like the way he loved to get around the huge warehouse and have fun with his guests.

And who could forget Bronner's unique way of saying things, like the way he described his first look at the brand-new Wallace and Irene Bronner and Family Performing Arts Center at Frankenmuth High School in 2002.

"A bell is not a bell until it's rung, and a song is not a song until it's sung. Love is not love until it's shared," Bronner once said.

And Bronner has shared that love his whole life, like the $1 million he and his family donated toward the performing arts center, or more importantly, the kind words he always had for everybody he met.

Bronner loved life, whether it was leading his annual Christmas sing-alongs at the store with Irene on the piano, building a replica of Austria's Silent Night chapel, or helping to beautify Frankenmuth.

Bronner will be missed -- not only by those who knew him in this area, but also by those whose lives he touched around the world.

Wally Bronner leaves behind his wife, Irene; son Wayne and his wife Lorene; daughter Carla and her husband Bob; son Randy; daughter Maria Sutorik and her husband Christopher; and five grandsons: Dietrich and Garrett Bronner; and Ryan, Paul and Greg Spletzer.

Bronner turned over the day-to-day operations of the family business to the second generation in 1998 but had remained active in the business and enjoyed being there every day ending in "y."

An active member of St. Lorenz Lutheran Church and many community organizations, Bronner was an active public speaker. Bronner also was an avid supporter of many charitable organizations.

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