WAUKESHA, Wis. — The City of Waukesha is unveiling a new public safety memorial to honor its first responders, and remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving the city.
The memorial, outside Waukesha City Hall, will be unveiled on Friday, Sept. 22. On it are the names of the two Waukesha police officers and three Waukesha firefighters who died in the line of duty.
One of those names is Detective George Schmidling. He was the first Waukesha police officer to die in the line of duty. He was just 34 years old and a father of three.
“He was just a fantastic man, then tragically June 11th came along, and the whole world changed for all of us,” said Gary Bach, Schmidling’s nephew.
On June 11th, 1961, while Schmidling was apprehending robbery suspects, he was shot and killed by one of them.
“There aren’t many days that go by that I actually don’t think about George,” Bach said.
Bach was 12 years old when his uncle was killed.
“It was a long time ago, but it seems like it was just yesterday,” he said. “George would have fit in well if he was a police officer. He was that kind of guy. Everybody liked him.”
Bach wanted to be just like his uncle, so he grew up and became a police officer. He eventually made it to the role of police chief, serving in that role for the Pewaukee Police Department.
Bach spent the past year fundraising for a new headstone for his uncle at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Pewaukee. Now, just a short drive away from his uncle’s final resting place, Bach has a new place to go to honor him.
Bach said Waukesha’s new public safety memorial outside city hall is important for the families of those who made the ultimate sacrifice serving the city.
“It’s a credit to the City of Waukesha that they never forgot,” Bach said. “That holds a lot of meaning to law enforcement, to the family, and to the city.”
The new memorial also has bricks in front of it that families can purchase. They can write a message or put their name on them.