By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

Most folks probably won't notice a lot of difference from years past at Friday's Oktoberfest.

The keg will be tapped. Lots of good food will be served. There will be reunions galore.

But for those who have been involved with the Volga German celebration since the early 1970s, Oktoberfest 2009, or any other hereafter for that matter, won't be the same.

For the past 36 years, Francis Schippers was there to raise his mug of beer in celebration because, his sister, Eleanor Schippers said, "that's the way it is carried out in Germany."

Francis Schippers won't make the 37th annual event.

One of the original organizers of Oktoberfest and founders of the Volga German Society in Ellis County, Francis Schippers died in May at the age of 68.

Despite battling a variety of health problems, Schippers never missed an Oktoberfest.

While numerous people kept the event going through the years, Schippers was the go-to guy.

So much so that immediately after his death, his sister, Eleanor, began scrambling.

"It was all in his head," Eleanor Schippers said the day after her brother's death. "The genealogy, everything. It was just all in his upper story, and he remembered it all."

Larry Werth from Schoenchen, another one of the original founders of the Volga German Society, said it was a team effort for the Schippers siblings, who lived together in Victoria.

"Eleanor was a really good secretary," Werth said. "She kept perfect notes. We depend on her a lot."

"I found everything I thought I needed," Eleanor Schippers said recently. "So we were able to do it the way he carried it out. That's the pattern we're following."

Tapping of the keg is set for 11 a.m. Friday, right on schedule.

That's the way Francis Schippers would have wanted it.

Werth knows Schippers will be there in spirit, but Werth still will miss his presence.

"He did everything, and we took it for granted," Werth said of Schippers. "He always filled in on anything. We'll miss him. That's for sure."