Michael S. "Mike" Heydt

                Michael S. “Mike” Heydt, age 82, passed away unexpectedly on May 10, 2026, in Parker, Colorado. Mike graduated from Seneca Township High School in Seneca, Illinois in 1961. He attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana as a Chemical Engineering major. Mike decided to pursue a career with Western Electric after scoring the highest qualifying exam score in the state of Illinois. When he turned in the exam, he pointed out two questions to the proctor that had errors in them (although he picked the answer the test writer was looking for so as not to sacrifice his perfect score) and the proctor agreed he was right. Western Electric (or as he liked to call it “Hectic Electric”) hired him immediately. Mike quickly became a valuable and sought after member of the company for key and complex projects around the country.

              Mike married his wife Mary in 1964, and they spent 61 years together living in Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Colorado. While Mike worked on many exciting and groundbreaking telephone and cellular projects during his time with Western Electric and AT&T, the proudest moment of Mike’s career was being part of a hand selected team of cellular technology professionals sent to New York after 9/11 to restore communications for search and rescue teams and citizens in the Tri-State area.

            Mike was known to many as “Mr. Fix-It”. If he could not fix it, it just couldn’t be fixed. Mike was a Corvette fanatic, owning several of them during the course of his life. The only thing that made him give up a Corvette was the birth of his daughter, MaryBeth (a loss she heard about many, many times over the years). Mike also enjoyed boating, fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, scuba diving, working on cars and motorcycles, pit crewing with his good friend’s racing team, having a beer or a good Scotch with friends, and making MaryBeth’s favorite Swedish Pancakes.

             Mike is survived by his wife, Mary and daughter MaryBeth (Kelly Deutsch) Heydt. He was preceded in death by his father, Mel, his mother, Meta and his brothers Marty and Marshall, along with his beloved aunts, uncles and cousins. Since Mike was never too much for formalities, the family will be honoring his request to forgo a funeral service. 

            In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you honor Mike’s kindness by doing a good deed to help someone in need, call a friend or family member you haven’t spoken with for a while to see how they are, grab a beverage with a friend and/or make a donation in Mike’s honor and memory to The Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy, The American Cancer Society, The American Heart Association or Friendship Village in Ottawa, Illinois.