Blaine H. Wilhelm

Born: August 12, 1923

Hometown: Moquah, Wisconsin

Job aboard: Oiler

Biographical information: Blaine Howard Wilhelm was born on August 12, 1923 to Willis and Helma Wilhelm in Big Bay, Michigan. He had three sisters: Marion, Dorothy and Barbara, and he had four brothers: Leonard, who died in the Battle of the Bulge; Frank, who died in 1998 and was in the army durning WWII; Stanley, who was in the navy; and Bill, who was in the navy . Blaine was married twice and had seven children: Mary, Candy, Heidi, Beth, Larry, Stanley, and Blaine. Blaine's children and his wife Lorraine lived in Moquah, Wisconsin when he was lost on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Blaine was in the navy for eleven years and was in the Philippines before being discharged as a fireman, first class. He also served in WWII and the Korean War before going into shipping, which he made as his career for the nineteen years before his death.

In his spare time, Blaine liked to hunt deer, fish, and play pool, and his siblings best memory of him was how he loved hunting and they remember that he was not home very much at all. Blaine loved his blueberry pie, and whenever he was home and not on the Fitzgerald, he could be found on the lake, barbequing with his family, or spending time with his friends at bars during what he called "Sunday school" time. Blaine was 52 years old when he died on the Edmund Fitzgerald.