Iver Gerald Igelsrud. How do we honor and reflect on your life? The only child of a Norwegian father and a German mother, you were allowed many experiences. Riding a donkey down the Grand Canyon, water skiing on one leg for more than 3 minutes, Boy Scout Jamborees, camping in the North Woods, skimming rocks on every body of water in the US, trading with Native Americans on a hot summer day, are just a few images from family slides.
You began your career at Jeffery Manufacturing Company and North American Aviation in Columbus, Ohio. We then moved to Binghamton, New York where you worked for the Singer Link Company, who were the first to build ground based cockpit trainers for WWII pilots. President Kennedy’s call to landing a man on the moon and safely returning him to Earth before the decade is over, resulted in NASA engaging Singer Link to build mission simulators for the Apollo missions including Apollo 11. This brought the Igelsrud family to Houston, Texas where you were a part of NASA’s Special Operations team of Mission Operations. As part of Special Operations, you helped design simulators which trained the astronauts to fly both the lunar and command modules to and from the moon. You traveled back and forth from Houston (NASA) to Cape Canaveral, Florida (Cape Kennedy) to keep the simulators up to date. A few of our fondest memories of you in Houston are you driving your beloved 1967 Austin Healy wearing your leather hat, listening to Credence Clearwater Revival, going to the docks to get fresh gulf shrimp on a hot Christmas Day, and our family fun of sailing on your friend’s sail boat.
In the early 1970’s, the Igelsrud family moved to Denver, Colorado where you worked for NASA contractor Martin Marietta (Lockheed Martin). There you worked in the Special Programs organization on the Viking project. As Program Manager of Advanced Programs, you were part of the team that successfully sent two orbiters and landers, Viking 1 and 2 to Mars. You retired from Lockheed Martin in 1997. In retirement, you volunteered for the WWII 447 bomb group where you co-edited their newsletter and helped family members learn the fate of their loved ones. This required you to travel to the National Archives in Washington DC to do research. When we think of you in Colorado we remember camping trips, playing pool on the basement pool table, family game nights, which included teaching us the card game Oh Hell and Chess. One of your favorite projects was the backyard garden complete with compost pile and chicken coop. We still laugh when we remember the unwelcome rooster greeting us at dawn. You loved the Dodgers but really just wanted to hear Vin Scully call the game and drink your Coors Beer. Your Cinnamon rolls, Thanksgiving dinner rolls, homemade ice-cream, Christmas Egg Nog, Easter angel food cake and the infamous Iver’s Special will be missed. You enjoyed Kris Kristofferson, John Prine, The Mama’s and the Papa’s, the Highway Men, Dixieland Music and your pal Johnny Maddox playing ragtime at The Red Slipper Inn in Denver. Your love of dogs leads the family to having 4 beautiful collies at one time in addition to other canine friends you rescued through the years. Your quick wit and sense of humor with renaming things included Buncos (Broncos), Rookies (Rockies), Elbow (Elway), Jalopano’s (Jalapeños), Chicken hooahooa (Chihuahua), marble mouth (Marlin Brando) and Al Packano (Al Pacino).
You married your college sweetheart, Barbara J. Hermann and you started your adventure together December 1956, which resulted in 63 years of happy marriage. This included multiple moves with new beginnings, love, laughter, 4 children, 6 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.
You were an even keeled, gentle man, not easily ruffled. You always thought before you acted and you never swore or raised your voice in front of your wife and children. You epitomized John Wayne’s quote: “Talk Low, Talk Slow and Don’t say too much.” Husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and friend, we all love you and will miss you forever. Everything is “A-OK”.
Iver Gerald Igelsrud was born November 9th, 1936 in Columbus Ohio to Iver Igelsrud and Hulda Laura Stahl Igelsrud. He passed away April 8th 2020 from the heinous Coronavirus. He is proceeded in death by his mother and father and his eldest son Jon Iver Igelsrud. He is survived by his wife Barbara, daughter Trina Igelsrud Pfeiffer (Randy) Centennial, Colorado, son Erik Nils Igelsrud (Sandy) Tacoma, Washington, and daughter Kristin Laura Igelsrud, Centennial, Colorado. He leaves 6 grandchildren: Randy, Jerry, Jonathan, Laura, Natasha and Ethan plus 3 great-grandchildren: Adam, Evan, and Emma.
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