A generation later, another lost boy

In we middle-aged cousins' generation, another beloved child was lost way too young. Karl Erwin Schmidt, son of Florence Sprick and Chuck Schmidt and brother of Patty Pepin and Joanne Schmidt, was born on March 8, 1958, and died in 1982 [exact date to come]. He was 24. Karl had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a devastating and debilitating condition that lurks in the bloodstream of some Spricks. (Jerry Lewis' telethons get a lot of donations from the Sprick family.) Here are a couple of photos of Karl, a soft-spoken young man who had a genius for building and fixing radios and other technology. The second one was taken at Castle Haven on the North Shore; that's Joanne, Pam and Chats on the swings. We'll add more photos of cousin Karl to this entry as we get them.