A Herman man died early Wednesday morning after a motorcycle accident at 60th and Leavenworth streets in Omaha.

Fredrick M. Getzschman IV, 22, was transported by an Omaha Fire Department Squad to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, according to a Omaha Police Department news release.

Omaha Police responded to the single-vehicle accident at 3:33 a.m.

Investigators determined Getzschman's 2008 Suzuki motorcyle was westbound on Leavenworth and entered Elmwood Park, and failed to negotiate the curve to the right on Elmwood Park Drive. The motorcycle continued straight off the road and collided with a metal utility pole.

An autopsy was scheduled for later Wednesday morning.

Printed in the August 16, 2013 Omaha World Herald

Getzschman, Fredrick M., IV "Ricki"

(veteran emblem)

Feb 5, 1991 - Aug 14, 2013

Survived by mother, Mary Chris Getzschman, father, Fredrick M. Getzschman, III; sister, Alicia Carosella; brother, Geoff Getzschman; stepfather, Dan Blumer; grandparents, Ed and Sheila Osterhaus, Fred and Sue Getzschman of Ottumwa, IA; great grandmother Rosemary Lang of Bellevue; many aunts, uncles, cousins and friends.

SERVICES Saturday, 11am at the 72nd St. Chapel. VISITATION Friday 6-9pm at the 72nd St. Chapel. Memorials to the Wounded Warrior Project.

JOHN A. GENTLEMAN MORTUARIES 72nd STREET CHAPEL 1010 North 72nd St. 402-391-1664 www.johnagentleman.com

Printed in the August 14, 2013 Omaha World-Herald, Omaha, Nebraska

Herman man dies after Omaha motorcycle crash

A 22-year-old Herman, Neb., man died after his motorcycle crashed into a utility pole in Elmwood Park in Omaha early Wednesday.

Fredrick Getzchman was traveling west on Leavenworth Street on a 2008 Suzuki, Omaha police said. As he entered the park on Elmwood Park Drive, police said, he failed to negotiate a curve to the right. The motorcycle veered off the road and struck the utility pole.

Getschman was taken in extremely critical condition to Nebraska Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

Police said the accident remains under investigation.

An autopsy was scheduled for late Wednesday morning, police said.

--Jay Withrow, Omaha World Herald reporter

Printed in the August 16, 2013 Omaha World-Herald, Omaha, Nebraska

Vet killed in crash had just started civilian life

Fredrick M. “Ricki” Getzschman IV “was always going 100 percent,” his mother recalled. It had been that way since childhood.

“If it had four wheels, he came in on two. If it had three wheels, he came in on one,” said Mary Chris Getzschman of Herman, Neb.

He brought that go-getter attitude to his Army career, she said. He was a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division and served one tour in Afghanistan, where his duties included searching for improvised explosive devices, she said.

Getzschman, 22, died Wednesday after his motorcycle crashed into a utility pole that morning in Elmwood Park.

The former private first class had ended his Army service Aug. 6 at Fort Bragg, N.C. and was back home Aug. 7 with the hope of becoming an electrician, his mother said.

“He was a smart, smart kid. Creative. Funny,” she said. “He liked to cause a little trouble, but it was almost always in good fun.”

Getzschman was living in Herman but grew up in Omaha. He graduated from Benson High School in 2009.

At Benson, he played drums in the marching band. When he was home on leave last fall, he built a wheeled cart to tote instruments and gear on and off the field for competitions.

Band students called it the “Ricki Cart”, his mother said.

He swam freestyle and backstroke for Benson, competing at the state tournament his sophomore through senior years.

He also had been a lifeguard at the downtown YMCA, where he taught swimming classes to special needs children.

Getzschman attended the University of Nebraska at Omaha before joining the Army.

Other survivors include his sister, Alicia Carosella of Fort Carson, Colo.; brother, Geoff Getzschman of Omaha; and grandparents Ed and Sheila Osterhaus of Omaha.

Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the 72nd Street Chapel of John A. Gentleman Mortuaries, 1010 N. 72nd St.

--by Sue Story Truax, World Herald Staff Writer

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Public Library, Blair, Nebraska ~~~

(veteran)

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