La Marque man engineered iconic Tree of Lights

La Marque man engineered iconic Tree of Lights
Galveston (TX) Daily News, 12/23/23
Hospice Care Team’s Tree of Lights has illuminated the island’s holiday skyline from atop The Daily News’ building for more than 30 years, but the story of how it came to be often isn’t explored. Back in 1989, Hospice Care Team, a nonprofit that provides hospice services without regard to client’s ability to pay, was looking to establish a fundraiser and came up with the idea of creating a Tree of Lights, on which donors could purchase bulbs to honor someone’s life. Great idea, but how to accomplish that? Enter Stanley Duitscher, who owned D Engineers Inc. in La Marque. ... “We had to be able to lower the tree when it’s not in service,” Duitscher, 91, recalled this week. “So, I incorporated a boat lift with a cable to raise it and lower it.” The tree is pretty much a ship’s mast with strands of lights draped off the top in the shape of a pine tree. The tree also had to be designed so that it would lie flat when not being used, so as not to be damaged by storms or even struck by lightning. His daughter, Minda Scherer, said his design fee was probably pretty reasonable. “He thinks he did it for charity, because he can’t find an invoice for the work,” she said.