Helmut Plein

Helmut Plein, age 91 of Wayne forty-one years, formerly of Saddle Brook, passed Monday August 17, 2020.

Helmut was born in Hambergen, Germany to Johann and Meta Plein.  In Germany he was trained as an apprentice tool & die maker. At the age of twenty-three he emigrated from Germany in 1952 settling with his aunt Martha Bultman and family in New York City. He found work as a tool & die maker and worked for Western Electric and Arrow Stapler.  He started a side-business called Tri County Irrigation in 1977 while living is Saddle Brook, New Jersey and before long this was his full time work. In January of 1979 he moved his family and the company to Wayne as the company was growing and he needed more space.  He owned and operated Tri County Irrigation until he was sixty-five years old when he sold the company. Helmut always had to be busy so in his retirement he found work with the Shotmeyer Oil Company where he initially did general maintenance and later helped with EPA obligations. He officially and really retired in 2007.

Helmut and Ilse Schaaf met by chance at a home in Germany. An Army buddy of Helmut heard he was assigned duty in Germany and asked him to hand deliver a letter to his mother. When Helmut went to her home Ilse was there mending some clothes as she was a seamstress. With that chance meeting they soon fell in love and married on November 25, 1956 in New York City.  They have had a devoted marriage of sixty-four years.

Helmut wasn’t even a United States citizen when he was drafted into the US Army and began his service on September 28, 1953 in New York City.  Although he served during the Korean War he was assigned to the post-war occupation force in Germany.  It was because of his ability to speak German and English, his knowledge of the German roads, and his jeep and tank driving skills, that he was assigned to drive US Generals and their wives all around Germany.  For his service he received the Occupation Medal-Germany, the Good Conduct Medal, and the National Defense Service Medal when honorably discharged on August 26, 1955.

Helmut will be remembered as a strong willed, hard-working man who was very particular about his work.  He enjoyed planting flowers around the house and planted at least twenty flats of flowers each year. He loved the fish pond in the yard and enjoyed feeding the birds as well.

Helmut enjoyed playing chess for many years and in 1973 he played in a by-mail chess tournament sponsored by Western Electric.  The fifteen enrolled players were in the United States and Canada and would mail a post card with the next move on it to each player. He was very proud of the fact that for two years he had fifteen chess boards set up and won the tournament. He was still playing with an electronic chess device just the week before he passed. Helmut always enjoyed sports and in his youth excelled at soccer. He loved to follow his favorite soccer team Werder Breman based in Bremen, Germany and also enjoyed watching the New York Giants and New York Jets on television. For many years he was also a member of the German Club in Carlstadt.

He was the loving husband of sixty-four years to Ilse Plein; devoted father of Evelyn (Michael) Growney of Rockaway, and Peter (Beverly) Plein of Glen Rock and Wall Twp; cherished grandfather of Christopher (Sarah) Plein, and Kevin (fiancé Cait) and Hailey (Mike) Tubb; loved brother of Herman (Diane) Plein of Beach Haven, and the late Erwin, Marianna, and Lisa; dearly loved uncle to his nieces and nephews.