Barb.  Sorry for your loss.  He obviously did an amazing job with as a father.  All my best to you and your family.  Shawn

I worked with Bill for many, many years and considered him one of the better people, maybe the best and a good friend of mine. One of the guys you could get a straight answer from. Sorry to say goodby to another old friend.

Both Jay and I are sorry for your loss.  It must be a sad time for all of you.  Ourr thoughts and prayers are with you !

Marcy an Jay Gast

The family of Paul & Verna Stahnke send their warm regards for your entire family.

Eulogy:  William Charles Nelsen (Bill) April 12, 1936-Auguest 21, 2012


GOOD MORNING. 

Thanks you for spending time with us this morning, to celebrate the life of my father, Bill Nelsen. I am Barbara Nelsen, the youngest of my father's four daughters. My sisters were kind enough to let me be the one to share some of our thoughts about our father. This is the first time in 50 years they have let me have my own way.

There is so much I could say. Dad was exceptional in lots of ways. But as I was thinking about it I decided that there are three things in particular that I'd like you to know about our dad, Bill Nelsen. First, I want to share the breadth of knowledge, interests and talents my father had. He was a true Renaissance Man. Second, I want to share with you his approach to life. He was realistic, pragmatic, always had a plan, and always was a problem solver.  In this was he was indomitable.  And lastly, I want to share with you some of his words of wisdom.

My Dad was truly a Renaissance Man. The definition of a Renaissance Man is a present day man who has acquired knowledge and proficiency in a wide range of fields. This was my father.

My Dad always had 3 or 4 new things he was trying to learn or master at any given time, and an infinite number of projects going on. Over his lifetime this has become a very long list of activities from things like being in a barbershop quartet to horseracing to woodworking to making sauerkraut. As the kid with the room next to the sauerkraut crock, this particular phase of his was not one of my favorites.

His passions and pursuits included building all sorts of things: musical instruments, furniture, bird feeders, toy boxes for my children, cutting boards with an inlay of a fish (I think we all got one of those for Christmas one year) miniature grandfather clocks (everyone but me, perhaps I was bad that year?) a greenhouse, and his house. Anything made of wood in my Dad's house was made by him. His kitchen table, the chairs, the dressers, the end tables, and the cabinets. In fact, things made of wood in my sister's houses were made by Dad too!  My sister Kathleen says: Dad spent many hours, in addition to his other work, to build the cabinets in my current house. He kept detailed records and we paid for the supplies but I don't think there was a way to pay him for his time or for the priceless value in having a Bill Nelsen Kitchen with requisite 3 breadboards. Dad became a painter, gardener, sculptor, birdwatcher, square dancer, and more…

For a while his passion was wine-making. I actually have two bottles of his wine that I found in my basement, vintage 1994 that I brought today.  I was always a little bit afraid to try them, but I will be opening them up at lunch for anyone who wants a sip.  I have here a Liebfraumilch Recipe # 14, and a Mixed Berry Sweet Recipe # 19A.  Despite my Dad's meticulous record keeping, I could never find a note that said what the difference between 19A or 19B was. Why not just # 19 and #20? Finally I read the label on the back of the bottle.  It says: “This is a mixed berry wine consisting of wild grapes and berries and domesticated raspberries.  The must was prepared in August of 1994.  At bottling it lacked the body and had an astringent, rather tasteless quality. Deer poop pellets were placed in half the bottles for flavoring and half the wine was sweetened.  Can you tell which bottles have the deer flavoring?  Enjoy!” 

So I'm hoping we can figure this out over lunch.

For several years, my Dad published a family newspaper called THE BRIDGE “Spanning the gap-Linking the Family”. I found an edition while I was looking for photos of my Dad earlier this week. It's clear why I saved this particular issue, Volume 4 Number 2 March-April 1996 as it has an announcement of my daughter Leah's birth. But there are many other interesting parts of the newspaper.  The cover article is titled “Live it Up! Or Am I Getting Old?” by Kathleen Barrett.  I'd like to just note that she was 35 when she wrote this.

There is an updates section where we learn that:  Laurie and Todd Karp bought a new GMC Conversion van; Dan Barrett Senior had surgery on his left knee; and Marilyn and Harold Engelstad returned home after spending January and February in Gulf Shores Alabama.
Never one to miss the opportunity to educate, my Dad devoted the entire back page to a vocabulary quiz.

In another cover article by my Dad titled “Back to 1894” Dad discusses what was happening in the world when his father (William Martin Nelsen) was 4 years old. My daughter Rachel read it this week and pointed out that Grandpa was right with his predictions.  He says:  “So what life changes can my grandchildren expect?  What is in store for Cassie, Chris, Blake and Rachel? (I don't know why he doesn't mention the other 6 of you grandchildren).  I think the certainties will be: the decline of daily newspapers, a depression, a population increase, more taxes, and interesting forms of space exploration.  Are we due for another explosive period of invention and discovery?” 

The May edition of the newspaper includes an article by my aunt, Virginia Drown about a problem rooster they had as children (which they aptly named Bill), and a profile of an unknown family member. Unknown because the title and first paragraph are missing. Stapled to the front of the newsletter (prior to mailing it out) is a note from The Editor (aka my Dad) that states:  “Occasionally our proofreaders make errors, as in this issue.  The first line of this month's profile mysteriously disappeared and this was not discovered until “The Bridge” was returned from the printers.  The proofreaders have been severely disciplined, demoted and reduced in pay.”  I'm assuming this meant my mother.
The stapled-on note continues: “The individual profiled this month is Marilyn Shutter, our favorite niece from Bemidji”

These hobbies came and went, but one thing that never waned was his passion for music. My Dad loved music. He loved playing music, listening to music, making musical instruments and going to the grandchildren's choir concerts, band concerts, and musical theater productions.  If you can name an instrument, my father could play it. One morning this week I was taking time to sit quietly in his basement, half of which is devoted to musical instruments, and I looked around and started counting what he had.  There were 6 guitars, 1 of them electric, 2 mandolins, 3 organs (one a Wurlitzer) 1 piano, assorted timpani (bongo drums, tamborines, etc) and I know, though I did not see it, that at one time he had, and could play, an accordion. 

He brought his love of music, his breadth of interests, and his broad perspectives to his approach in raising his children, intentionally exposing us to as many things as possible.  Other kids went to Disney world for vacations – we toured the lock and dam system #3, the Red Wing shoe factory, and the Schmidt Brewery where I am pretty sure Dad let me taste beer. We went to museums and demolition derbies. We went to concerts: from symphony orchestras to fiddling contests, the rodeo, and county fairs. We planted and weeded the garden, canned vegetables, made jam (and made sauerkraut) did chores and cleaned (poorly), and helped Dad with plumbing and electrical projects. I specifically remember having to help him clean out the drainage pipe for the septic system because I was the one who had to hold the bucket.  It was not a nice experience. 

He gave us a fantastic informal education, with a wide exposure to the world. And he expected us to get a formal education, have careers. And have fulfilling lives. He always said that we could be and do anything we wanted. Exceptional for a man of that generation to say this to his daughters. (Of course, the irony is that at the same time he would be relaxing on the couch telling my Mother he needed a snack. And my Mom would ask him what he wanted, make him a sandwich, and serve him his snack and milk …).

So, that's my dad. A Renaissance Man, except when it got in the way of getting a snack made for him.

SECOND, our dad was a strong and determined man. My Dad was indomitable.  This word is not used much, but it describes our dad perfectly.  It means that nothing – no person, no object, no problem – could defeat him. You know how when you are a child you think your father can do anything, and then when you get older you realize that isn't the case?  For me, that time never came.  My Dad was a bit like MacGyver.  Remember that TV show? MacGyver would find himself in a sticky situation, but would use whatever was at hand (his sock, some twine and chewing gum) to create an escape. My Dad would look at every situation, small and big, realistically and say, “OK – this is not what I may have chosen, but here is my plan.”

Here is a small example. My Dad was an avid birdwatcher.  He has 10 birdfeeders in the yard, one of them for hummingbirds.  He built and installed these feeders, and then something unexpected happened.  Instead of feeding the birds, Dad was feeding the squirrels. He was feeding the deer. He was feeding the raccoons, and he was even feeding the ants. Dad, being a realist said: “Okay, this was not my intention, so what will I do to solve this problem?”  Standing by the sliding doors to his backyard what you see  looking out at the ten feeders are ingenious inventions designed to thwart these other animals.  He has created sheaths of PVC plumbing pipes that fit over the feeder posts to keep the squirrels from climbing up them. He has strategically placed the feeders far anough away from trees sot that squirrels cannot launch themselves from the them onto the feeders. And he devised a fabulous invention to keep the ants out of the hummingbird feeder. It was so great that I told him he should patent it, but he said he found it on the internet, called an ant moat. It is a very ingenious cup with water that is positioned about the nectar so that the ants have to swim through the water (which of course they can't do) to get to the hummingbird feeder. And as I stood there by his sliding glass doors I looked to my left n=and saw his plan B. As a last resort there was a pellet gun perched next to the doors, for any squirrel athletic enough to have a long jump, or with and IQ larger than a nut who could figure out a way up the feeder. I know for a fact that he has used that gun more than once.

As I mentioned, Dad loved music. He was an aspiring organist, with three organs – one a Wurlitzer.  If you know anything about organs there are lots of keys, lots of buttons, and lots and lots of pedals.  For those of you who do not know this, my father had part of one leg amputated several years ago.  Obviously not a desired outcome, but he worked around the problems it presented to maintain many of the activities he loved.  One of the things he absolutely would not give up was playing the organ.  Of course, you need two feet (and therefore two legs) to play the organ. Being the builder/engineer/inventor that he was he created a prosthetic leg specifically designed for the organist.

The first leg he made was from his initial temporary prosthetic.  Once they completed his “real” leg he asked for the old one back, and then he retrofitted it. He worked with a block of wood to carve a “foot” that he could attach to the leg.  This wooden foot was built to specifications so that he could fit his “organ playing shoe” over it.  Apparently you need not just your foot to play, but the ability to use your toes, and the heel of the shoe.  It wasn't perfect…the lack of flexibility in the ankle was a problem, and so he kept tinkering through V 2.0 and v 3.0 using flexible metals, felt, and other modifications to give him the results he wanted. 

A last example of my Dad's pragmatic approach and problem solving when life didn't work out as planned involves my Mother. We lost our mother in 1996. My father knew that the first year after losing my mother would be terrible.  And he didn't expect it to be anything but terrible.  However, he figured he was going to have to go through it one way or another, so he may as well make a plan for getting through it.  And so he did.  As part of his plan he signed up for three activities that he would be involved in that would require him to get out of the house every week and spend time with other people.  He didn't expect to have fun doing these activities.  He knew it would be hard to make himself go.  But he did it anyway. He took a painting class. As the only 60 year old man in the class surrounded by women of his age, it turns out that he was a bit of a hot ticket. Unexpected, but probably nice for him.  Not a bad thing for my father. He loved dancing and had been an excellent ballroom dancer. But he did not want to stay in the past. He wanted to try something new. So he turned his attention to square dancing and joined a club. I don't know how hard that year was for him. I don't know whether he had any fun.  I don't know whether it ever got better.  But what I do know is that when those twelve months were through, he realized he had gotten through it.  And things happened that were unexpected. He discovered he loved painting, and he has been painting ever since. He found he really enjoyed square dancing. And it was through square dancing he met Barb Stene, who has been his constant and loving companion for the past 15 years.

This last month Dad faced his last challenge, a really hard one. I'm sure he had twine, chewing gum and I know for a fact that he had many, many extra left-footed socks. But this wasn't a problem that tinkering and problem solving could fix.  So instead he made a plan. He said to me:  “Well, this is not unexpected. I am not surprised. But I'd prefer to have a bit more time.  I have a few more things on my to-do list.”  But as was his way, he continued to modify his to-dos to reflect the time he thought he had left. We modified them, and them we modified them again as he felt his time was shortened. And in the end he finished his story the way HE wanted to.  At home, in his bed, with his family. My Dad.  Absolutely, positively, indomitable.

THIRD and lastly, our Dad was wise. He never told you what to do, and he didn't offer advice unless asked.  Sometime he'd say: “Would you like my advice?”  And then you'd have to think carefully about whether you wanted to say yes or no…but when he gave advice, it was always useful.  Even if it took a few weeks (or years) to realize it.  I asked my sisters for the best advice our father had given them.  This is what they said.

From Kris Anderson: "What's the worst that can happen?"  (I personally don't find this helpful) And, "Don't worry until you know what to worry about." 

From Laurie Karp (apparently when she was a bit younger): “He said he would listen to my side and discussion more when I had lived longer and had some basis for my opinions.” Laurie, I hope that you finally got to share your opinions.

From Kathy Barrett: “Why not try? The worst that can happen is you fail. Then pick yourself back up and try something else.” (reminding us that it's okay, and in fact necessary, to experience failure if you want success) 

And most importantly: “You have to keep your sense of humor – that will get you through life.” Just a week ago he was telling his grandson Christopher this.

The best advice my Dad ever gave me was that things never remain the same.  They are always changing.  He told me this some 10 years ago, and it been the most useful thing he has ever said. What it is today is not the way it will be tomorrow, or next month, or next year. So here we are today, and life has changed for us all. This is not what we would have chosen, but this is what is. And we can choose how we deal with it, and how to move forward, making a plan and always keeping a sense of humor. 

There is much more I could say about my father, and even then I know that I will have only described a slice of him. My perspective. He was both interested and interesting. He was indomitable, wise, and thoughtful even up to his final moments. I know if I ask anyone else here, they will have another version of Bill Nelsen and a wealth of stories to tell.  And so, I'd ask of everyone here to spend today sharing those stories of Bill with us and with each other. It would mean so much to us, and to him. 

Thank you very much.

Authored by:  Barbara Anne Nelsen June 8, 1962-

We are so sorry for your loss.  Bill was a great guy, and we are really glad we had the privilege of knowing him.  Please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you.

Laurie and family--We are so sorry to hear about your loss.  Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

     Barb, it deeply saddens me to hear of Bill's passing.  I will really miss time spent visiting with you guys.  Bill was so talented.  I always enjoyed discussing his latest woodworking project, composition on the organ, or whatever the days events would bring.  I was truly blessed to have him join our family during holidays sitting around the table playing games.  I want to extend my deepest condolences to my aunt Barb, the Nelsen family, and extended family and friends of Bill.  Know that you are in my thoughts and prayers.

Laurie, Todd and family..... we are so sorry for your loss. We will be keeping you in our thoughts and prayers. 
Jean, Dakota, Kalel and Alona

Barb, I know what a terrible loss this is for you.  I'm here for you 24/7.  May God bless you and the family as you grieve.

Ellen

Laurie, Todd, and family: We are so sorry for your loss.  You all will be in our thoughts and prayers.

I am so sorry for your loss. you and your family are in my prayers.

I am so sorry for your loss.I will always have a warm spot in my heart for Bill.
Love Ken Kuehn

Kathleen and family, 
I am so sorry for the loss of your father. You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers.
Paula Ness,

We are so sorry for your loss.  Please know you are in our thoughts and prayers.  Lisa, Rachel and Tom

Sorry for the loss of your father Laurie. It is never easy to lose loved ones. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family during this time. Keep the wonderful memories close to your heart

The Kueng Family is heartbroken over the loss of our dear friend Bill.  Such a talented gentleman!  He was someone to talk with for hours and never be bored.  We're sad to have missed some important times recently.  How important each moment we have together!  We will forever miss you;  you leave a large void in our midst.      Dennis, Bonnie, John, Julie, Joni

We are heartbroken for your loss! Bill was one of the kindest and most genuine men we have ever known, and one of the most fun and interesting as well! We want to extend our sincere sympathy to each of you, especially you, Aunt Barbara. Katy and Levi thought very much of Bill and enjoyed our holiday gatherings and game nights! Bill will surely be missed by many, many people!

Barb, my thoughts and prayers are with you at this difficult time.  So sorry to hear about Bill's untimely passing. He did not get to stay with us on earth as long as we'd have liked.  May God and his angels hold you a loving embrace as you walk the journey of grief.  
Sending Love, Hugs, Prayers,& Blessings, Lois Bell

OBITUARY

William "Bill" Nelsen

April 12, 1936 – August 21, 2012

Wulff Funeral Home

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