Frederick James Nelson

A funeral service will be at 2 p.m. Friday at the Callahan-Edfast Mortuary Chapel. Private interment will take place at the Veterans Memorial Cemetery of Western Colorado.

Mr. Nelson was a retired plumber and plumbing inspector.

He is survived by his wife, Jean A.; two sons, David J. of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and Roger N. of East Grand Forks, Minnesota; one daughter, Connie A. Early of Ceraredge; two sisters, Ellen Korthuis of Roggen and Betty McFarlin of Colorado Springs; five grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

Memorial contributions to Preston Ranch Ministries, P.O. Box 44, Roggen, 80652.

Frederick James Nelson was born on June 7th, 1923 in Clinton, WI – born to Emery and Anna Nelson. The family grew when he was joined by his sisters Ellen and Betty. The lived in Clinton for a few years and then moved to Beloit, WI and other rural areas in Rock County where he attended country schools. The family eventually moved to Delavan, WI where Fred attended high school. He often said he learned more in the country schools because of smaller classes and individual teacher’s attention.

In late fall of 1941 he volunteered to serve in the Army Air Corps and was sworn in on December 29, 1941. He received his first issue of uniforms at Fort Sheridan and was sent to Jefferson Barracks in Missouri for basic training. In April of 1942 he was assigned to Victorville, CA where he became an airplane mechanic Crew Chief on training planes. He served as a mechanic at Douglas, AZ until late fall 1943 when he applied for training for Air Crew. He was accepted and started training at Moorhead State Teacher’s College in Moorhead, MN. His future wife Jean Tufte was student at Concordia College in Moorhead and they met when Fred was on a pass one weekend. In April 1944 Fred was assigned to Santa Anna, CA for pre-flight training as part of the aircrew program. His further training took him through primary flying at Ryan Field in Hemet, CA, basic flying training at Minter Field in Bakersfield, CA and Douglas Army Air Base in Douglas, AZ. He graduated in May of 1945. He was assigned to Williams Field, Chandler, AZ where he flew bombers on radar training missions. In November of 1945 the program ended and, after serving in various capacities, he was separated from the Army Air Force in February of 1946.

Fred went home to his parents in Beloit, WI for a short time and then moved to Fargo, ND where Jean Tufte was a student in a nursing program. Fred proposed marriage and they were married on September 8, 1946 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Hatton, ND. They made their home in Fargo, ND for the next four years, during which time they were blessed with two sons, David and Roger. In the spring of 1952 they moved to Shopiere, WI to be near Fred’s family. Fred finished his plumbing apprenticeship in the next four years. Their daughter Connie was born in 1956 and they moved back to Fargo. In 1962 Fred and family moved to Hatton, ND where he started a plumbing business. They spent many happy hours fishing in the local lakes, bird hunting and, of course, sitting at the baseball field. Eventually Fred chose to close his plumbing business and work for various contractors. In 1981 he, along with his wife and daughter Connie, decided to move to Colorado to be closer to his mother. There he took a job as a plumbing inspector for Eagle County, which lasted until he retired in 1989 at age 66. He and Jean moved to Grand Junction, CO where Fred enjoyed years of playing golf and gardening. He began to have health issues and, by 2002, he had had several surgeries including open-heart surgery. It was at that time that Fred realized he was not ready for whatever might happen after surgery. So, he took Christ as his savior and it changed his life, giving him peace and rest.

In 2012, Fred and Jean moved to Delta, Colorado to be near their daughter Connie. In the fall of 2015, Fred’s health began to fail and, along with Jean, entered WillowTree Care Facility. While there they celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary. On November 15th, 2015 Fred went home to be with the Lord. His family is sure the Lord met him and said, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Fred is survived by his wife Jean, who still resides at WillowTree, his sons David (Signe) and Roger (Sheila) , and his daughter Connie Early (Tom), his two sisters, Ellen Korthuis (Bob) and Betty McFarlin. He leaves behind 5 grandchildren, Paul, Andrew, Mark, John and Matthew and 10 great grandchildren, Helen, Owen, Trinity, Lillian, Hannah, Elizabeth, David, Leah, Daniel and Ethan. In May of 2016 Fred’s legacy continues as the family looks forward to another member to arrive.

It was Fred’s greatest wish that his life would reflect the love of Christ. We feel his wish was granted.

A TRIBUTE TO MY BROTHER

Ellen Korthuis

Fred signed up to join the Army Air Corps a little more than a month after our country was attacked at Pearl Harbor. He went through the ranks, earned his wings and eventually was assigned to be an instructor of the young men who were to be the pilots in WWII. He loved planes and he loved flying.

Even in his later years he was a member of the Commemorative Air Force in Grand Junction, CO, restoring WWII planes. To the end of his life he had hanging on his bedroom wall pictures of favorite WWII planes. Planes and the thrill of flying them was one of the joys of his life.

In the last few years of his life he was no longer able to go out to the hangar at the Grand Junction airport to work on plane restoration.

Back in his 20’s he earned his Army Air Corps wings and was qualified to fly. At the age of 78 he received another kind of wings. At that point in his life he trusted Christ as his personal Savior and was given the right to be called a child of God. As a pilot he loved to soar through the sky in the cockpit of a plane. Now as a child of God he grew to love the exhilaration of a relationship with his God.

When we visited him and Jean he was always ready with a comment or question drawn from reading his Bible.

I think the day came when Fred was sitting on the runway of his life and he heard the Lord whisper, “You are cleared for takeoff.”

Qualified by Jesus to fly he soared through the sky to land at his home base, heaven. Can you just hear him singing, “Off I go into the wild blue yonder!”

Read at Fred’s Memorial Service by his son David James Nelson on November 20, 2015.