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Tim Dienger did nothing halfway and had the scars to prove it.
In his junior year as an offensive lineman for the Wisconsin Badgers, he had a choice between sitting out with an injured shoulder or taking cortisone and playing. He played until he blew out his knee.
Until a recent shoulder surgery, Dienger would go to the YMCA at 5 a.m. — and again at noon.
“It’s go hard or go home,” wife Jennifer said Monday. “That’s how he lived.”
Dienger, the town of Onalaska administrator, died after collapsing at his home Sunday night. He was 31.
He is survived by his wife and their children, Kealan, 6, and Finola, 3.
Dienger summarized his philosophy on his Myspace page: “Live every day as if it’s your last.”
A 1995 graduate of Onalaska High School, Dienger earned a master’s degree in urban and regional planning at the University of Wisconsin and worked with the cities of Portage, Wis., and Green River, Wyo., where he also was a volunteer firefighter and coached the high school football team to a state title.
Dienger returned home in 2006 to become the town of Onalaska’s first administrator.
With his earrings and tattoos, he didn’t look the part of a municipal administrator, but those who worked with him praised Dienger as a leader who knew what he was doing, knew how to listen and was easy to work with.
“He was a true professional,” said Stan Hauser, town board chairman. “It’s going to be hard shoes to fill.”
Dave Paudler, board chairman when Dienger was hired, said, “He was the type of person you just love to have around. Everything was on the brighter side. Everything was do-able.”
In recent years, Dienger developed a strong faith, nurtured by the pastors at Sand Lake Wesleyan Church. He had a Christian fish symbol tattooed on his wrist and hoped to find a way to go to seminary. Jennifer said he dreamed of doing an outdoor adventure ministry.
Jennifer said her husband at times would be taken advantage of because of his desire to help people. “He would just look out for everyone else first,” she said.
Dienger loved music — especially the band Nirvana, and Christian rocker David Crowder. After taking up playing guitar last year, he already accumulated four of them.
He wanted to get a motorcycle, but Jennifer wouldn’t let him. He told her, “God will take you when it’s your time.”
Dienger had a contemplative side, too.
He had been reading the collected works of C.S. Lewis and was passionate about historic preservation. When he walked through a town, he didn’t just look at the buildings, Jennifer said, he admired the cornice work.
Tim felt ill last week, she said, but doctors found nothing wrong.
On Sunday, the couple visited Clear Lake, Iowa, where they wandered around looking at old buildings. They talked about finding ways to spend more time together and about Jim Croce’s song “Time in a Bottle,” which became a hit in 1973, months after the singer’s death at age 31.
“If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day till eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you.”
Tim told his wife he was going to learn to play the song. He never got the chance.
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