A decade after his death, an exchange student from St. Cloud still maintains contact

ST. CLOUD — As the sounds of music from a Lake George festival filtered through the open windows of City Hall Sunday afternoon, a group of about two dozen people gathered for a more serious cause.

It was the tenth anniversary of the day that turned all of their lives upside down: German exchange student Alexander Voigt died in a plane crash five days before his return home. The untimely death of an enterprising 16-year-old shocked those who knew him. But it also created lasting bonds that span generations and continents.

“Since then, we have been a big family and we consider some people as friends, even if we don’t see each other that often,” said Voigt’s father Yorck Jetter on Sunday, a day after he arrived from Munich with his wife Jutta Voigt and daughter Kira Voigt.

Alex “Sascha” Voigt visited St. Cloud during the 2013-2014 school year as an international exchange student with Youth For Understanding. He stayed with St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis, an avid traveler who has visited more than 130 countries and previously hosted five other exchange students.

On June 20, 2014, Voigt was enjoying his last days in Minnesota. He had just returned to St. Cloud from a trip to Duluth, where he checked off the typical North Shore to-do list (Grandma’s Saloon & Grill in Canal Park, Gooseberry Falls, Betty’s Pies) and then said goodbye to friends at a farewell party.

That evening, he and commercial pilot Scott Olson took to the skies in a small plane to take some aerial photos. But about 25 minutes after takeoff, the plane crashed into a house in neighboring Sauk Rapids, killing Olson. It was later determined that the plane likely lost pitch control when the canopy opened during flight.

“It’s unbelievable that it’s been 10 years already,” Jetter said Sunday. It’s the fourth time in the past decade the family has come to central Minnesota, and this time they wanted to reconnect with those who knew Voigt in the final year of his life.

“It has a lot of symbolism. Ten years just feels different,” said Jetter.

Also in the room Sunday were Ken and Sharron Ring of Houston, Minnesota, who hosted Jetter as an exchange student in 1979 and have stayed in touch since then.

“He’s part of the family,” said Ken Ring, now 75.

When Alex Voigt was about 8 or 9 years old, his family visited the Rings’ farm. There, he drove a tractor, rode a boat and begged to look for hidden Easter eggs even though it wasn’t Easter, Sharron Ring said with a laugh.

Most of those in attendance knew Voigt only as a high school student. He attended Technical High School, where he was known as a “positive goofball” who was enterprising and friendly, said Joe Froelich, who met Voigt through sports at Tech.

“He was someone everyone was attracted to,” said Jess Ambrosch, another former classmate who is now engaged to Froelich.

The couple knew each other from high school but were not friends. After Voigt introduced them to each other, they began dating.

“He is in a way responsible for our existence,” said Ambrosch, noting that Voigt’s memory will live on for the next generation with her 10-month-old daughter Hazel, whose middle name Alexandra is a tribute to Voigt.

“He may be gone physically, but his influence is always with us,” Froelich said. “We only knew him for a year. It’s crazy how quickly you can build those connections with people. He was one of those people. You don’t meet people like that very often in your life.”

Others expressed similar feelings.

“Alex brought us together as friends,” Jake Oehrlein said of the group of former classmates who gathered Sunday. “I think otherwise we might not have all been in the same circle of friends. But because of him, we have a lifelong connection.”

Rachel Evavold, who went to prom with Voigt, said whenever she photographs Voigt, he is laughing and smiling. “He was always joking and so much fun to be around – but he was also someone you could count on for every thing,” she said.

Voigt’s family had not seen him for a year at the time of his death. After the crash, they came to St. Cloud to collect his remains and held a small memorial service at the St. Cloud Convention Center on the same day he was scheduled to return home.

The following year, the family returned to dedicate a bench along the Mississippi. And on the fifth anniversary of his death, Voigt’s family came to “retrace his steps” during the last month of his life by exploring the North Shore – and even sitting in the same booth at Grandma’s. Back then, said Jutta Voigt, they learned a lot about the “Alex they never got to know.”

Former classmates such as Froelich and Ambrosch have also visited Voigt’s family in Munich. And Kleis visits them in Germany at least twice a year.

It was bittersweet to see Voigt’s former classmates again – now young adults with careers, some of them married with children.

“It’s a turning point in the lives of his friends,” Jetter said.

Even though Voigt didn’t have the chance to grow into a man in his twenties, he left a lasting impression on those who knew him.

“His short time on this earth impressed me more than many other people I have known in my entire life,” said Kleis. “His joy in life and new experiences was infectious.”