Gustav "Willie" William Freiheit

Willie was born in Essen, Germany, and at age 4 came to the U.S. through Ellis Island, a week before the stock market crash of 1929. He grew up in Chicago, and went to Lane Tech. He learned shop and mechanical drawing, and took college prep courses.

He loved his parents, but wanted to be more when he grew up. He saw the suits and ties of the businessmen in the Loop, and vowed to enter that world. He skipped two grades, and graduated at age 16, too young to go into the Army (WW2 had started).

In early 1943 he joined an Army Infantry unit, and was in one of the final battles for Germany. He was wounded in action. After six months of hospitalization, he left the military at the end of 1945. He lived in San Bernardino and attended City College. Later, at the age of 45, he got his degree in Political Science from Cal State, Long Beach.

He was a Planner-Scheduler and worked on the Apollo Program, putting men on the moon. He lived on Mission Bay, and loved it there. He swam in the Bay before going to work and also had a small sailboat. After he and his first wife were divorced, he moved to Los Angeles to work at several aerospace contractors. He developed new business proposals, and computer systems relating to project planning and control.

He met his wife, Victoria, in 1973, and they married on Valentine’s Day in 1975. They were married for 47 years. In 1978, they moved to Saudi Arabia and lived in Jeddah to build Yanbu, a large industrial complex on the Red Sea. It included petro-chemical design, building roads and public buildings, and enlarging the port and airport. Then, he worked at Parson's world headquarters for 3 years, and then joined a manage-ment consulting firm until retirement. He was proud to finally be a decision-maker.

After retiring, he lived in Tombstone, Arizona, from 1988 to 2003. He and Victoria opened a B & B, and he was elected to the City Council. He performed dramas and musicals with a repertory group and became a tap-dancer. He says that the two go hand in hand—being a tap-dancer and being a politician. We owned a historical house that had been the headquarters of the old Border Patrol in Arizona.

Willie hated to give up riding his motorcycle. He had crossed the U.S. East-west, north-south on it. He always read, always knew what was happening. As a youngster, he wanted to become a writer or journalist. So it was a lucky accident that he spent his adult life in the world of aerospace, where his writing skills were needed.

Willie is survived by: Wife Victoria, children Jeffrey, Pamela, Ernest, Brenda, Mark, grandchildren Tawny, Lauren and Shawn, along with Seth, Shey and Belle.

He loved the church family at Community Congregational Church of Chula Vista, UCC.