Floyd Roland Sedlund

Roland Sedlund, World War II veteran, aerospace engineer, and loving husband and father, died September 11, 2019 at age 94 due to complications of kidney disease. He was born July 30, 1925, in Taylors Falls, Minnesota, to Ruby Viola Theodora (Nelson) Sedlund and Ludwig Edmund Sedlund. He went by his middle name, Roland, from a young age throughout his life because his Swedish-speaking grandmother had difficulty pronouncing the name Floyd.

He grew up on a dairy farm in Almelund, Minnesota, where he worked hard tending the cows, baling hay, and milking. His early education took place with seven other students in a one-room schoolhouse with no electricity or running water, and where he was moved up a year because he was the only child in his grade.

Roland graduated from North Branch High School in 1942 at age 16 and subsequently enrolled in an aircraft mechanics course at Curtiss-Wright Tech in Burbank, California. He returned to Minnesota and enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces, beginning active duty in October 1943. After basic and aviation cadet training, he went to the pre-flight center in Santa Ana, California, where he was classified as a Navigator, promoted to second lieutenant, and shipped to navigator training in Monroe, Louisiana, to become a navigator on the B-29 Superfortress bomber. At the end of training his crew received orders to report to Saipan in the Pacific theater. Before his deployment, however, the atom bomb was dropped on Japan and, in his words, “everything just quit.” He was discharged from active duty in February 1946, and discharged from the U.S. Air Force Reserves in 1967. In 2009, he was interviewed about his life and wartime experiences for the Veterans History Project.

Roland returned home in 1946 and the next year enrolled in college at the University of Minnesota on the GI Bill. After receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering in 1951 he again made his way to Southern California, where a job at Convair in San Diego paid 25 cents an hour more than jobs in the Midwest. At Convair, he worked on engine testing at the seaplane ramp, the Sea Dart program, and supersonic rocket sled tests at Edwards Air Force Base. During this time he received his private pilot’s license and joined a flying club, but more importantly joined the choir at Bethesda Lutheran Church in San Diego where he would later meet his future wife, Ruth Ann Larson, a young nurse newly arrived from nursing school in Minnesota. They were married December 21, 1957 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, while Roland had returned to the University of Minnesota to pursue a Master’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering. They enjoyed over 61 years of marriage, raising four children and loving each other to the end.

Ruth and Roland returned to San Diego in 1959 where Roland resumed working at Convair, now part of General Dynamics, and eventually found his way onto the Atlas launch vehicle program, where he worked until his retirement in 1992. They were long-time residents of the Serra Mesa neighborhood and long-time members of Atonement Lutheran Church in Clairemont. He was deeply involved with his children, taking leadership roles in Little League and the Boy Scouts, as well as teaching Sunday School and serving in numerous roles on the church council.

In retirement Roland adored his grandchildren and great grandchildren, becoming a fixture at their sporting events and birthday parties. He was the embodiment of his Christian faith, helping out elderly neighbors, delivering Meals on Wheels with Ruth for 18 years, and being a constant support to family and friends in times of crisis. He never missed a work day at Atonement with the “Good Ol’ Boys.”

As Roland's health declined, he took everything in stride, and never once complained or lamented his fate. He called dialysis his “part-time job” at which he labored four hours a day, three days a week, for over ten years.

Roland was preceded in death by siblings Grace Genevieve Flysjo, Ludwig Ellis Sedlund, and Ruby Annette Sedlund and by infant son Eric Alan Sedlund. He is survived by wife Ruth Ann Sedlund; sister Ione Elizabeth Paulson, children Cynthia Hann (Byron), Clifford Sedlund (Marilyn), Keith Sedlund (Monica), and Kenneth Sedlund (Susan Babuka); seven granddaughters, and five great-grandchildren.

The family would like to thank the staff at Grossmont Post Acute Care in La Mesa and at Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center Hospital for their skillful, patient, and loving care shown to Roland and support to the family in his last few weeks.

Services to be held at Atonement Lutheran Church, 7250 Eckstrom St., San Diego, CA 92111, at 2:00 pm on Saturday, September 21, 2019 with reception to follow in the church fellowship hall. Interment at Miramar National Cemetery in San Diego to follow at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, donations are suggested to the Roland Sedlund memorial fund at Atonement Lutheran Church or the National Kidney Foundation.