{"id":143990,"date":"2025-09-24T18:23:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T23:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/?p=143990"},"modified":"2025-09-24T18:23:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T23:23:38","slug":"rick-apitz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/rick-apitz\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Apitz"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Rick Apitz, age 70 of New Ulm died peacefully on Saturday, September 20, 2025, at JA Wedum\u00a0Hospice Home in Brooklyn Park.<\/p>\n

A public visitation will be held from 9am-12pm on Saturday, October 11, 2025 at Minnesota\u00a0Valley Funeral Home \u2013 NORTH chapel prior to the service.<\/p>\n

A funeral service for close friends and family will be at 12pm on Saturday, October 11, 2025 at\u00a0the funeral home.<\/p>\n

To leave an online condolence for the family, or to sign the guestbook, please visit:\u00a0www.mvfh.org<\/p>\n

Rick is survived by his mother, Lois Apitz of New Ulm; sons, Tim (Amanda) Apitz of Necedah, WI\u00a0and Brad (Bridget) Apitz of Kasson; grandchildren, Lydia and Judson Apitz; sisters, Connie\u00a0(Richmond) Scharf of New Ulm, Patti (Paul) Lokken of North Mankato, and Shari (Ron Miller)\u00a0Apitz of New Ulm; dear friends Maureen Bohnen of New Ulm, Nick (Katie) Dumdei of Mapleton;\u00a0many other relatives and friends.<\/p>\n

He was preceded in death by his father, Otto Apitz Jr. and son, Chad Apitz.<\/p>\n

Ricki Dean Apitz was born July 2, 1955 in New Ulm to Otto Jr. and Lois (Gieseke) Apitz. He grew\u00a0up in New Ulm and graduated from Martin Luther Academy in 1973. Following graduation, Rick\u00a0purchased Shayds of Color. Shortly after, he started Apitz Printing in 1976. Rick spent his entire,\u00a050-year career photographing and honoring the life of our community.<\/p>\n

Music was an important part of Rick\u2019s life. Wherever he was, music was always playing. Along\u00a0with his love of music, he had a lifelong passion for RC airplanes. As a proud member of the\u00a0Wingnuts Flying Club, he spent countless hours building, flying, and sharing that hobby with\u00a0friends who became like family. Rick was also a long-time member of the Sertoma Club of New\u00a0Ulm. Faith was a guiding part of Rick\u2019s life and he shared that commitment through his lifelong\u00a0membership at St. Paul\u2019s Evangelical Lutheran Church.<\/p>\n

Rick\u2019s family was at the center of his world. He was not only a devoted father but also his boys\u2019\u00a0best friend\u2014sharing in their lives with laughter, guidance, and unwavering love. Becoming a\u00a0grandpa brought him immense pride and joy. Lydia and Judson were the light of his life, and he\u00a0treasured every moment with them.<\/p>\n

Rick will be remembered most for his generous and kind spirit. He was the kind of man who\u00a0always looked for the good in every situation, finding the bright side and encouraging others to\u00a0do the same. His positivity was genuine and lasting, and it touched everyone who knew him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rick Apitz, age 70 of New Ulm died peacefully on Saturday, September 20, 2025, at JA Wedum\u00a0Hospice Home in Brooklyn Park. A public visitation will be held from 9am-12pm on Saturday, October 11, 2025 at Minnesota\u00a0Valley Funeral Home \u2013 NORTH chapel prior to the service. A funeral service for close friends and family will be …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":143991,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2027-10-24 18:21:00","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143992,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143990\/revisions\/143992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143991"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sleepyeyeonline.com\/goodnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}