Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (Wisconsin)
Wayne D. Otto earned a reputation in the world of golf far beyond the 18 holes he lovingly tended at the Ozaukee Country Club.
Course superintendent for 35 years, Otto became known as an advocate for golf courses that were good for both golfers and the environment.
"It was important to him that the environment was protected," said colleague and friend Dan Quast, superintendent at the Milwaukee Country Club. "He strove to try to get that point across and that's how he ran his course."
Otto died Oct. 21, the result of pancreatic cancer, at his home in the Town of Grafton. He was 65.
He grew up in Mequon and graduated from high school in Cedarburg. His father was a farmer who sometimes helped on the country club grounds, and so did young Wayne Otto.
He went on to Penn State, where he was an early graduate in its turf management program. Otto began his career at golf courses in Nebraska. About 1967, Otto returned to Mequon to work as superintendent back at the Ozaukee Country Club.
There he increasingly focused on how to use less pesticide and fertilizer, or what he called more of a "medicine" than "preventative" approach. He created a wildlife area on the property.
Otto also used science to improve how the course played, experimenting with a top-dressing of sand in 1975.
"We were called mavericks at the time, but trial results were so good that in 1976 we extended the program to all greens," Otto said in one trade publication.
"He was a leader in the industry," Quast said. "He was doing things and creating playing situations that people still try to emulate -- the condition of the golf course, the smoothness of the greens, the speed of them.
"I guess the best way to say it, he had the touch."
The two men wrote a book together -- "Golf Course Turf Management: Tools & Techniques" -- published earlier this year.
Others agreed that Otto played a special role in golf.
"He was the kind of guy who questioned everything we were doing as a profession, all the way through," said another friend, Rod Johnson, now superintendent at Pine Hills Country Club in Sheboygan.
"He was my mentor through the years," he said.
After Otto was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June, he began alternative treatment in Germany.
"Everyone wanted to do something, and no one knew what to do," said his wife, JoAnn Otto.
His friends decided to set up something they called "The Wee One Recovery Fund." Proceeds from a special golf outing were put toward treatment and travel costs. Any additional money will be used to help some other course superintendent in medical need, she said.
There's yet another story in "The Wee One" fund name.
"In 1985, he and three friends went to Scotland," she said. Her 5-foot-8 husband was shorter than his 6-foot-and-taller friends. The caddies there had their fun placing bets just who would win the game.
"My money's on the wee one," declared one caddy in his Scottish brogue. It didn't stick as a nickname, but his friends later thought it was a good name for the fund-raiser.
After 35 years at the country club, Otto began his own business, Turfgrass Support Services, acting as a consultant to golf courses in the Midwest.
He also kept playing golf.
"He loved to play golf, to watch golf, to talk golf," said his wife. "Golf course architecture was a passion."
In addition to his wife, survivors include his daughter, Cami; stepson, Erik; sister, Mary Grace; brother, Jim; and grandchildren.
Services were held Tuesday.