Paul J. Vetter Jr. was a successful but modest businessman with a taste for hellbent experiences.

“He was always a very active person,” said son Paul Vetter III. “He enjoyed travel and adventure and was something of a daredevil, even later in life.

Vetter, who co-founded Vetter Stone Co. in Mankato, died Sunday at age 85 after a lengthy illness, two days before wife Shirley, 83, died following a heart attack.

Paul Vetter Jr. was born in Kasota and became known for the Harley-Davidson motorcycle he owned in high school.

“He’d stand on the saddle of that Harley and go down the highway at 55 mph,” his son said.

The elder Vetter’s zest for thrills was unabated even at age 80, when he made a 10,500-foot parachute jump from an airplane.

After serving aboard a submarine during World War II, Vetter spent five years teaching industrial arts at Nicollet High School. One of his students in the mid-1950s, retired Nicollet farm implement dealer Paul Zins, was a lifelong friend.

“I worked for him as a kid when he was setting up his stone business,” Zins said. “He was different. He wasn’t an ordinary guy. He was very strong-minded, opinionated and proud of his family. The whole family is proud of themselves, and rightly so.”

Vetter limestone building materials are used internationally. In the United States, uses range from the public library in Mankato to the WCCO TV building in Minneapolis to the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.

Vetter stone also will be extensively used on the new Minnesota Twins ballpark.

“He was never boastful about his work or accomplishments, but he was proud of the fact that his stone is being used pretty much around the world,” said his son.

Vetter Jr.’s nephew, Jim Vetter, describes his uncle as a staunch family man who was “always fit and proper.”

“One thing I always got a kick out of was that he said he and Shirley were out in Las Vegas and they walked from one end of the strip to the other,” Jim Vetter said.

A joint funeral service for the couple will be 11 a.m. Friday at the Church of St. Peter in St. Peter.