Wayne Charles Kreuscher died on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2022, in his Mahopac home. Born Feb. 13, 1946, in Lincoln, Nebr., to Glenn and Marion Kreuscher, Wayne grew up with his siblings, Glenn Jr., Jim, and Susan. In 1968, he graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Journalism, magna cum laude, as a member of the senior men’s honorary Innocents Society. At UNL, he focused on journalism. For example, he edited the Daily Nebraskan, was a Lincoln Star and Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, and married his journalism colleague Janice Itkin of Omaha, Nebr. After graduation, Wayne entered the University of Nebraska School of Law to prepare for a future as a government affairs reporter for a major newspaper. His plans were interrupted when he was drafted during the Vietnam War and inducted into the U.S. Army, where he edited military newspapers in Georgia and Germany. After being discharged, he returned to law school, was editor of the Nebraska Law Review, and graduated in 1974. He accepted a position as a legal associate for what later became Barnes & Thornburg, moved to Indianapolis with his then-wife Janice, and, for almost 40 years, litigated on behalf of clients, garnering national recognition for his expertise in the practice of product and medical-malpractice defense. Their son Kenneth was born in 1978, and Wayne became a partner in 1981. Throughout that time, he supported equal rights and dignity for all in various ways. Wayne was an active and supportive leader of different cultural, arts, and political organizations. Locally, he was president of Dance Kaleidoscope, Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation, and the Meridian-Kessler Neighborhood Assn.. He served Planned Parenthood, Cathedral Arts, the Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Welfare Federation, the Damien Center, the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, and Lambda Legal in other capacities. Nationally, he worked on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign, was a trustee of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and was a member of the publication committee of the American Bar Assn. In 1994, he was one of the first partners of a national law firm to come out as an openly gay man. In 2009, Wayne married his domestic partner of almost a decade, Walfredo de Freitas, and after Wayne retired from Barnes & Thornburg in 2012, they moved to Mahopac. There, he joined the law firm of Goldberg Segalla in White Plains, just outside Manhattan. After retiring again in 2016, he focused on exploring the New York cultural arts scene, physical fitness, and caring for rescue animals, especially cats and dogs. Wayne is survived by his husband, Walfredo de Freitas, Mahopac; son, Kenneth A. Kreuscher, Portland, Ore.; and two grandsons, Zev Redfir Kreuscher and Simon Hawthorn Kreuscher, Portland.
