Fred E. Osterman

WRIGHT — A Marine and World War II veteran, Fred Osterman worked for and identified with the military all of his life.

His parents came to America through Ellis Island from Austria, seeking opportunity. On his return from war, he made his career working for the Army Depot in Schenectady, then in Voorheesville, and he ended his career as a planner and estimator at the Watervliet Arsenal. He was proud of where he had gotten, his daughter, Carol Johnson, said, and was a very knowledgeable man.

Fred Edward Osterman of Brick Schoolhouse Road died on Wednesday, April 29, 2015, at Ellis Hospital after a short illness. He was 90.

In the midst of World War II, he married Stella M. Slater on her visit to Parris Island just before he went to the Pacific Theater, where he was a gunner on the USS Bennington. He was extremely proud to be a Marine.

“He said the one thing he wanted [to take] out of the house, he still has his Marine Corps uniform,” his daughter, Carol Johnson, said. His family plans to put his dress blues with him in his casket.

Mr. Osterman was born on Jan. 18, 1925, in New York City, the son of John and Mary (née Mantel) Ostermann. A mistake on his birth certificate left him with just one “N” at the end of his last name, his daughter said.

The family of five boys moved upstate when Mr. Osterman was still a child, starting a farm on Route 146, where they raised beef and lived off of the land.

At Schoharie High School, Mr. Osterman played flute and piccolo in band and orchestra, his daughter said. He was glad when his granddaughter, also in the Schoharie schools, chose the flute as her instrument.

Mr. Osterman was a devoted father and family man and took his daughters fishing and hunting. They once helped him build a garage, too. Even if they scared the animals they were hunting or wanted him to release the fish they caught, Mr. Osterman wasn’t frustrated with his daughters, Mrs. Johnson said; he was proud of whatever they did.

“He said girls could do what boys could do,” Ms. Johnson said. Mr. Osterman was happy to have daughters when he came home from the war, she said, because they wouldn’t have to experience what he had.

Figuring he would be drafted, Mr. Osterman enlisted in April 1943, his daughter said, and married his wife on Oct. 7, 1943.

His daughter said she recently saw photographs from his time in the Pacific Theater, with a group of men on the carrier, and others when they went to Japan after the country surrendered. He was honorably discharged in December 1945.

He lived in Schoharie County and worked at the Army Depot in Schenectady, then in Voorheesville. He later worked as an inspector for the Army in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and the Watervliet Arsenal. He retired from the arsenal as a planner and estimator in August 1980.  

“I always remember that he was the kind of person who would come home from work and you could set our clock at the time he’d be there,” Carol Johnson said.

He was a member of the former American Legion Post 1261 in Schoharie and, later, the Altamont American Legion Post 0977, where he served as commander. With a left-handed delivery, he played in various bowling leagues into his 80s, through the Altamont post and with other elderly men. 

Mr. Osterman enjoyed trout fishing and he would go deep-sea fishing at Montauk Point off Long Island, and shrimping in Florida, his daughter said.

As his parents aged, Mr. Osterman helped on their farm, cutting their heating wood and spending a day butchering their meat.

“He was just an average man who tried all of his life to do his best, and I think he did,” Mrs. Johnson said.

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Mr. Osterman is survived by his daughters, Carol Johnson and her husband, Eric, of Central Bridge, and Geraldine Celebucki and her husband, John, of Schenectady; his grandchildren, Scott Johnson and his girlfriend, Cara Avery, of Central Bridge, Kenneth Celebucki and his wife, Jennifer, of Rotterdam, and Jason Celebucki of Schenectady.

He is also survived by his great-grandchildren, Michaela Johnson, Ashley Celebucki, Brittney Celebucki, Cory Celebucki, Mason Celebucki, and Collin Cernik, and another great-grandchild is due this summer; two brothers, Howard Ostermann and Robert Ostermann and his wife, Shirley; and several nieces and nephews.

His wife, Stella Osterman, died before him, as did his parents, John and Mary Ostermann, and two brothers John Jr. Ostermann and Henry Osterman.

Calling hours will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 20, at the Langan Funeral Home, 327 Main Street Schoharie. A funeral service will be held there at noon on Thursday, May 21. Burial with military honors will be held in the Knox Cemetery.  

Further information is available at langanfuneralhome.com.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, 501 St. Jude’s Place, Memphis, TN 38105.  

— Marcello Iaia

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