OPU leader’s death stuns community

Roger Warehime, general manager of Owatonna Public Utilities, died unexpectedly last week. He was 61.

“I still can’t get my head around it that he’s gone,” said Brad Meier, president and CEO of the Owatonna Area Chamber of Commerce, echoing the sentiments of all who knew Warehime.

“Roger was a person who really cared a lot about people, and that’s why he was such a good leader,” Meier said. “He was always level-headed; he asked the kinds of questions that cut through and got to the truth.”

Meier saw that in Warehime’s work not only with OPU, but with Owatonna’s economic development group and his role in the Foremost Brewing Cooperative, “which was a big attempt to add to the community. He wanted the community to be successful; he worked really hard at that.”

That extended beyond the business scene, Meier said. Warehime’s strategic mind and planning sense allowed him to “help out a ton of nonprofits, planning with their boards and different things like that. He was so good at that stuff.”

All true, said Owatonna Mayor Matt Jessop, “but first and foremost, Roger was a husband and a dad and a friend and a colleague, more than anything else. Those personal relationships, who he was as a human being – that’s what’s truly important, and that’s where he’s going to be missed.

“Kris is going to miss her partner; Jacob and Jackie are going to miss their dad,” he said.

Warehime and Jessop were neighbors for almost 15 years, developing a relationship that preceded Jessop’s election as mayor.

“But thinking back, after the election, the first person to get ahold of me and invite me in to their workplace was Roger,” Jessop said. “He took me on the $2 tour of the power plant – the behind-the-scenes stuff that most of us don’t get to see when we’re not lucky enough to be in a position like that. But he offered himself up and said, ‘if there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.’”

Tom Kuntz, who was Jessop’s predecessor as mayor, spent 32 years at OPU, retiring after he assumed the mayoral role in 2005.

Warehime had joined OPU a year earlier, working his way up to general manager in 2018.

“He was very dedicated, and he was very knowledgeable,” Kuntz said. “I think the best way to describe Roger is that he was a people-person. He really was. He was such a good community member; he was pretty creative in the things that he did.”

Kuntz, too, saw Warehime’s talents in that economic development role.

“The Chamber, the utilities, the mayor, some of the development people would meet every week and talk about projects that are going on in Owatonna,” Kuntz said, “and we’d all get detailed explanations and detailed assignments on trying to improve businesses in Owatonna.

“Probably one of Roger’s most important (contributions) was working with industrial customers,” the former mayor said. “You need to have a good relationship … and he was able to do that.”

Indirectly, Warehime also had an effect on residents around the state.

He was on the board of the Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, and also on the Minnesota Municipal Utilities Board, Kuntz said.

“He was heavily involved in both operations in controlling prices on electricity, and helping control costs,” Kuntz said.

Under his leadership, OPU achieved significant modernization, “and set OPU on a path that continues to deliver meaningful benefits to the customers it serves,” the company said in a statement.

“One of Roger’s greatest accomplishments was the team he built and the culture he leaves behind. He believed that a strong organization starts with its people, and he worked every day to build a workplace where employees felt valued, supported, and proud of the work they do,” the statement says. “The culture of safety, accountability, and genuine care for one another that defines OPU today is a direct reflection of his leadership and his character.”

Kent Rossi, president of the OPU Board, said “Roger didn’t just manage a utility – he built a team, earned the trust of his community and made all of us better at what we do. This is a tremendous loss, and he will be deeply missed by everyone at Owatonna Public Utilities.”

Warehime’s style of leadership will take on a new meaning now, Jessop said.

In the days following Warehime’s heart attack, “I had some back and forth with some of the (OPU) staff, and I asked how everybody was doing,” the mayor said.

What he heard was “a reassurance that Roger surrounded himself with good, smart people – and in his absence, everybody was stepping up to do what they needed to do, in order to make sure the job was done,” Jessop said. “The people there do their job well, and they take great pride in it.”

His friends all spoke of Warehime’s commitment to health and exercise, despite his busy schedule.

“You think about a guy who does literally everything right,” Jessop said. “He was a runner, he was a bicyclist; he took care of himself.”

“He walked everywhere,” Meier said. “He was super-healthy. I think that’s what makes it such a shock to everybody. He was in his prime; he was healthy, he’d been leading the utilities for quite some time, and was just great.”

But the best thing about Warehime, Meier said, was his genuine interest in people.

“If Roger was talking to you, he was locked in, and he cared about what you were saying,” Meier said. “He really listened, and then he could respond – always with something really insightful – and I found him to be just an incredible source of wisdom.”

Meier said his friend was “the person to go to if you had issues. He just would always take the call, and was willing to take the time to help you walk through it and give some perspective.

“He just … he was just naturally really good at that, and boy, I’ll miss that a lot.”

A memorial service will be Friday at 11 a.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in Owatonna. His obituary may be found on A14.