JANESVILLE — Tom Presny was head of the Janesville Parks Department for 30 years.
For the past 15 years, he spent Sundays during the fall as an usher and security person at Lambeau Field during Green Bay Packers games.
In 2008, those two worlds came together when the Oak Hill Cemetery Association turned its operation over to the City of Janesville.
Presny soon discovered that the 90-acre cemetery, located on North Washington Street, was the final resting place of the man who was a driving force in designing the iconic “G” on the Packers helmets and was the team’s equipment manager from 1956-1976.
Gerald “Dad” Braisher is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery next to his parents, grandparents and sisters.
Braisher earned the nickname “Dad” as a youngster, when he and his best friend took the nicknames Dit and Dad from a cartoon strip.
Work needed to be done
Once Presny became acquainted with the story of Braisher and saw the small gravestone marking his burial site, the longtime Packers fan started work on enhancing the grave site.
“The one that really tripped my trigger was his involvement with the ‘G’ logo,” Presny said of his interest in the Braisher gravesite. “The other piece of the puzzle was his gravestone is the size of three or four loaves of bread.
“It’s rather small and inconspicuous,” he said. “It draws little interest or attention.”
After several years of work raising money for the project, Presny and the Braisher Recognition Committee are ready to unveil the improved Braisher gravesite Tuesday.
Dave Robinson to speak
Former Green Bay linebacker Dave Robinson will attend the dedication ceremony that will be open to the public at 4:15 p.m. at the gravesite, located near a public access path behind the Oak Hill Cemetery Chapel.
Robinson played for the Packers from 1963, when he was the team’s first-round draft pick out of Penn State, until 1972. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2013.
Also in attendance will be members of the Boyd family, who ran the Union Hotel in De Pere, where Braisher lived for 40 years before his death at age 81 in 1982.
The Boyd family had paid for a small Packer helmet with the “G” logo on Braisher’s headstone.
“At that time, the (Boyd) family said they weren’t sure Dad Braisher would ever receive recognition in the city of Janesville of who was and what he did,” Presny said. “This is our way of showing how important Dad was to us, the Green Bay Packers and the City of De Pere.”
Braisher’s parents were married in Janesville in 1877. They moved to Oshkosh where Braisher was born in 1901. Braisher graduated from high school in Oshkosh and then from UW-Oshkosh. Braisher later moved to De Pere, where he taught industrial arts and coached football and basketball at De Pere East High School from 1922 to 1953.
A charter member of the Wisconsin Football Coaches Hall of Fame, Braisher became the equipment manager for the Packers in 1956 when Lisle Blackbourn was the head coach.
Lombardi loved Braisher
In 1959 a new coach arrived—Vince Lombardi.
In 1961, Lombardi asked Braisher to develop a design for the logo-less Packers helmets. A bachelor, Braisher worked nights and came up with a “G” outlined with the shape of a football.
John Gordon, an art major at St. Norbert College in De Pere, was a college intern who took Braisher’s suggested design and put it on paper.
Lombardi, who typically wore baseball caps at practice with a “GB” double-letter logo, wanted a “GB” as a logo, but agreed to use the “G” design and color scheme for the 1961 season.
When the Packers—who had lost to Philadelphia in the 1960 NFL Championship Game--defeated the New York Giants 37-0 in the 1961 NFL Championship Game at Green Bay, Lombardi would not touch the logo design. It has become one of the most recognizable logos in pro sports.
Lee Remmel, a long-time Green Bay Press-Gazette reporter and then a publicity director for the Packers, told the Press-Gazette that Braisher always reminded people that he and quarterback Bart Starr were team rookies together in 1956.
“I can’t say enough about how popular he was,” Remmel said. “He was a great favorite of Vince Lombardi’s.”
And Starr—Braisher’s rookie partner—admired the team’s equipment manager.
“Dad Braisher was a hidden asset to our teams,” Starr told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2013. “He was a great gentleman who was devoted to the Green Bay Packers.”
Lori Keck, who was Lombardi’s secretary from 1961 to 1968, echoed those sentiments.
“Dad lived and breathed the Packers,” Keck told the Journal-Sentinel. “They were his whole life. He loved his job, and he was loved by everyone. I never met anyone who was so loved.”
Tuesday celebration
The dedication celebration will begin at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 17, in the Oakhill Cemetery Chapel for the donors of the project.
The public is invited to attend the outdoor portion of the dedication that will be held at the gravesite starting at 4:15 p.m.
Robinson will address those attending the public ceremony, as will members of the Boyd family who ran the Union Hotel.
“I want this to be a celebration of Dad Braisher being in Janesville,” Presny said. “For future generations, we’re unveiling a recognition plaque that tells his life story.
“We want residents of Janesville and the area to help celebrate.”
Attendees should enter the cemetery at 1725 North Washington, across the street from Bogey’s bar. Vehicles will park along the roadways by the chapel, which is straight ahead of the North Washington Street entrance. People can then walk to the gravesite, which is a couple hundred yards uphill behind the chapel, or use city transportation that will be available.
Presny has invited what he termed “super fans” that he has met while working gamedays at Lambeau Field to the dedication. Included in that guest list is “St. Vince”—John O’Neill of Manitowoc—who wears green-and-gold bishop-type vestments at Packer games. O’Neill, along with his wife, are expected to drive his 1957 Chevy station wagon that is painted in Packer-colors to the dedication.
“We’re going to park that up in front,” Presny said.
Included in the gravesite renovations are a cement bench with a “G” logo that is like the ones that are around the perimeter of Lambeau Field. The Boyd family and Union Hotel and the Packers organization donated the money for that. A large sign outlining Braisher’s accomplishments with the Packers next to the bench will be unveiled.
“Everything is completed and covered, and we’ll unveil it on the dedication day,” Presny said.
About $7,500 was raised for the project, Presny said.
“That is what has been donated so far, and we’ll be asking for freewill donations to help with perpetual care,” Presny said. “Who knows what the future may bring?”
For a Packer fan like Presny, Tuesday will be gratifying.
“This is something that I’ve really thought needed to come to fruition,” Presny said. “Dad Braisher has been buried in Janesville for 40 years, and very few people know that. People will be able to come to the cemetery and live some Packer history in Janesville.”
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