Frederick C. Schilplin III, 58, of Annandale, died Wednesday, April 13, 2005, at the St. Cloud Hospital. Funeral services were held at First Presbyterian Church of St. Cloud, Saturday, April 16. Interment followed at North Star Cemetery. Memorials are preferred to Boys & Girls Club of Central Minnesota, 345 30th Ave. North, St. Cloud, Minn. 56303. He is survived by his wife, Yvonne (Winter) Schilplin, and two sons; Frederick Phillip Winter Schilplin of Minneapolis, and Chad Colgrove Winter Schilplin of Bloomington. The name Frederick Schilplin plays a significant part in Stearns County history: The first Frederick Schilplin (the deceased’s great-great grandfather) was an early pioneer in Stearns County, born in Brugg, Canton Argau, Switzerland. Inspired by an uncle, a German engineer who had immigrated to America, he came to Ohio as a teenager. Determined to seek his fortune, he headed for the “Great Frontier” of Minnesota in 1859 and purchased 220 acres in St. Joseph Township. In 1861 he responded to the call from President Lincoln and enlisted in Company I, Third Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, eventually becoming a Lieutenant. After the Civil War, Frederick I sailed to Brugg, married his boyhood sweetheart, Elsie Kieser, and they came to live on the farm in St. Joseph. In 1887, they moved to St. Cloud, where Mr. Schilplin published the first edition of the Minneosta, a German weekly newspaper, which lasted only a year. He died April 14, 1888, but he had engendered two more generations of publishing. Frederick and Elsie’s son, Frederick, Jr. (who is Fred’s Father), was 12 when his father died, and sought a newspaper job, which led him to the editor of the Times, who gave him an apprenticeship earning $2.50 a week. He worked his way through the ranks, eventually becoming part owner, and when editor/publisher C. F. Macdonald died, Schilplin bought the remaining stock of the Times Publishing Company. He signed the Times on with the Associated Press wire service, operated WFAM radio broadcasting, and adhered to this principle: “An independent newspaper, owing allegiance only to the public interest.” Upon marrying Maude Comfort Colgrove of Minneapolis on June 14, 1899, Fred and his bride became pillars of the community. Their business interests flourished, and they had one son, Frederick Colgrove Schilplin, who graduated from Culver Military Academy and took journalism courses at the University of Missouri in order to follow in his father’s footsteps at the Times. Frederick C. Schilplin III (the deceased) was born Feb. 16, 1947, to the aforementioned Frederick Colgrove Schilplin and Mildred (Smith) Schilplin. He attended elementary and high school in St. Cloud, graduating from St. Cloud Tech in 1965. St. Cloud State College, the University of Colorado (Boulder), and St. John’s University at Collegeville all educated Fred Schilplin in a variety of subjects, but the endeavors that gave him vast pride and pleasure were related to sports cars and bicycles. Racing sports cars was a passion; Fred won the 1980 Sports Car Club of America National Championship at Atlanta, Ga. In 1984, he founded and was president of American Bicycle Manufacturing Corporation in St. Cloud. The company manufactured state-of-the-art mountain bikes, which were sold in the U.S. and 22 foreign countries. Frederick C. Schilplin III had three other passions: Yvonne Winter Schilplin, whom he married in 1975, and sons Freddy and Chad. Pallbearers: Roger Schmidt, Stephen Hobbs, Bill Schmitt, David Sanders, Charles Linnell, Clair Gerads, Kurt Luckemeyer, John McMahon, Doug Baumgartner, and Charles Brigham. Honorary Pallbearers: Dan Neuman, Jimmy Lannon, Joe Stotko, Allen Bright, and Terry Miller.
