Vernon Eugene Elverson

Vernon Elverson was born on a farm in South Dakota in 1929. He went to a one room school house in grades 1-8. He always liked to say that you can take the boy off the farm, but you cannot take the farm out of the boy. He recalled the miseries of the ‘30s: grasshoppers, hail, drought, the big dust storms, and the financial hard times. He worked as an iron worker on three of the six dams and the railroad bridge on the Missouri River. In the U. S. Air Force, both here and overseas, he taught pilots and mechanics a familiarization of the F-86 fighter jet during the Korean War. After completing his service with the Air Force, he studied electrical engineering at school and went on to work for Sperry Univac, which later became Unisys. They trained him in computers and sent him to California, where he met his wife, Ruth. He worked for the company for 31 years on such projects as the electrical system for the Titan missile flight control and specialized in designing power supplies, including one used in space. He enjoyed celebrating his Norwegian heritage at lutefisk dinners all over the Twin Cities. He had a close group of friends he met for coffee almost every morning.

He was preceded in death by his wife Ruth; daughter Diane Kindem; brother Stanley; and sister Vivian Stalheim. He is survived by his sister Lorraine Manson; son Curtis; daughters Susan (Michael) Hewitt and Andrea; grandchildren Isaiah, Elizabeth and Katherine Hewitt; and many nephews and nieces.

The funeral will be held on Friday, February 4 at Woodbury Lutheran Church, 7380 Afton Rd, Woodbury. Visitation at 10 a.m. and service at 11 a.m. followed by lunch. Burial will follow at Union Cemetery, Maplewood.