One local writer payed homage to a friend with a book written about their life.
John J. Mutter Jr. recently completed a book, titled “The Oddball,” detailing the life and personality of Shawano resident George Putz Jr. Putz passed away in 2006.
“In 1966, I got a job at the Shawano Paper Mill,” said Mutter. “I got to meet George Putz there. After I retired in 2001, I got together with George again. He was a very interesting fella.”
Mutter said a lot of the time that the two spent together involved simply sitting and talking without a radio or a television on.
“When he died in 2006, I was asked if I wanted to help clean his place, because they were going to have an auction,” said Mutter. “We started cleaning the place up, and there were so many photographs and letters and personal things.”
He said that, instead of leaving Putz’s personal pictures and letters go to a landfill, Mutter kept them and used them to create the book.
“I thought that I have to either write a book or throw this stuff out, so that’s how I wrote the book,” said Mutter.
The book reads like a biography, which includes Putz’s photos of him as a child all the way through his adult life, as well as journal entries and personal letters.
Mutter spoke on his relationship with Putz, saying that the two formed a close bond and became tight friends.
“He was always after me to join the historical society,” said Mutter. “I attended a couple meetings and after a while, I joined. I then invited him to join the Shawano Area Writers. He put a book together about the history of the Shawano Paper Mill. It was a good book, so I knew that he was a writer.”
Putz’s name is used by the Shawano Area Writers to this day, as the group’s youth writing contest is named after him after he donated more than $77,000 to the group almost a decade ago.
According to Mutter, the title for the book came from a self-proclaimed nickname from Putz.
“He was a little a different and he said, ‘I think some people might consider me an oddball,’” said Mutter.
Mutter said that with all of the original photos and letters to fill the book, it took him six months to put it all together.
“They were all nice and wrapped up — everything was perfect,” said Mutter. “All it was, was scanning the pictures and the letters and putting them together in the book.”
Mutter called it a pleasure to write a book to share the life and experiences of a close friend with people who may not know him.
“I always liked George because he was a decent person,” said Mutter. “I’m sure that a lot of people — even the people that knew him — didn’t really know a lot of things about him. I know that he is up there somewhere smiling right now. I thought that the Shawano community should know him.”
He added that when looking through the letters and photos, as well as when he spent time with George, Mutter learned a lot about Putz, including things that Mutter can use in his life today.
“I learned a lot about his family tree,” said Mutter. “One thing that I learned that I want to get across is that George was a recycler. He loved to recycle. If everyone recycled everything, we wouldn’t have to go through all of these mine problems in Wisconsin.”
With the book only being out for a couple of weeks, Mutter hasn’t gotten a lot of feedback from readers. In the limited feedback that he has received though, Mutter said that it has all been positive.
“I haven’t heard anyone say that they didn’t like it,” said Mutter. “I have it at the historical society right now if people want to pick up a copy.”
The Shawano County Historical Society is located at 524 N. Franklin St., Shawano and open Mondays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon. The price for the book is $12.50.
To sum his experience, Mutter said that he wants the Shawano community to know more about Putz and the impact that he had on the community as a whole.
“When I show some people the book, they tell me that they didn’t even know George — that is why I wrote the book,” said Mutter. “Maybe someone can learn something about his life that will help their life. In a way, this is a way to keep George’s legacy alive. He led a good life.”
lreimer@newmedia-wi.con
Mutter details book about lifelong friend
