Delton E. Bergsgaard

Delton ‘Del’ Eugene Bergsgaard, 94, passed away peacefully on March 5, 2024, at New Perspectives Senior Living in Superior, WI with family by his side.

Del was born August 27, 1929, on the family farm near Maddock, ND to Alph and Agnetha Bergsgaard. He grew up there with siblings Kenneth, Marlo, and Karen. Del attended the one room Bergsgaard School #6 on his parent’s property and Benson County Agriculture and Training School.

Before he launched himself into long and varied careers, he worked on the home farm with his father and brothers and at Vallier Farm near Oberon. He attributed his bent-out pinky fingers to milking 100 cows a day! In these early years he learned to fix, design, and build anything he needed. Eager to get to work and earn a living, he left high school early to join the Great Northern Railroad. He worked throughout the upper Midwest, building steel bridges, viaducts, towers, and tracks. He had a big Harley Davidson when he did railroad work out of Devils Lake. One day Del raced that Harley into the farmyard and laid it out flat. His Mother Agga said that was the day her hair turned white.

In 1949-50, he worked on the viaducts in Superior where he met his first wife, Ruth Elaine Peterson. They married in 1950 and had three daughters, Monica, Cheryl, and Pamela. Returning to Grand Forks, Del became chief mechanic and charter bus driver for Lake of the Woods Bus Line, traveling all over the US and Canada. Ruth and Del divorced in 1959.

Del met Marlene Joy Edkins of Clearwater, Manitoba after rescuing her bus by the roadside. They were married in 1960. They had two children Darren and Paula. With the joyous ways of Marlene, Del’s two families blended together in the most loving ways.

Del became a welder for Troyer Manufacturing in East Grand Forks prior to working at Deaconess Hospital in Grand Forks as an ambulance attendant and an orderly. After he received his GED, he became a Certified Respiratory Therapist and later the Director of the newly created Inhalation Therapy Department. After 17 years at Altru Hospital, Del became the administrator of Golden Manor Nursing Home in Steele, ND. Prior to his official retirement, he worked for Concrete Inc. and Vigen Construction in Grand Forks, again welding, and building components for grain elevators. On his hobby farm in Thompson, Del expanded his business of custom welding and designing, opening Del’s Metal Fabrication.

Over their forty-one years of marriage, Del and Marlene lived in Grand Forks and Thompson where they both enjoyed gardening, traveling, and camping with their children, especially the annual cousins’ camp out. His brother Marlo and wife Betty planned many vacations and family reunions with Del and Marlene on camper trips to national parks in the US and Canada. They traveled to England, Ireland, and Mexico together. Del was always eager to return to their home and his workshop. Daughter Paula remembers her dad saying, “Hurry Home” whenever she was leaving the house. This sentiment is engraved on his burial stone.

After Marlene’s passing in 2002, Del moved to Shelly, MN where he was soon elected as Mayor. He operated a large workshop in Shelly and did welding for the area farmers. He lived in Hillsboro, ND for a short time. In 2010, Del moved to Superior, WI, where daughters Monica and Pamela lived, and where Cheryl visited frequently. He thought this location provided “kid density” and made it easier to stay in touch with all his children.

Over his lifetime, Del built several campers for his family’s travels, utility trailers, water pump systems, car wash systems, pallet wrappers, farm implements and storage buildings for his customers. His son, Darren, from a young age, worked alongside him, learning many invaluable skills. Del, Marlene, and Darren built his largest “camper” from the axles up. Pulled by a semi-truck and named the “Prairie Schooner,” the 40-foot, two-story trailer featured two bedrooms, fully equipped kitchen/dining, bathroom, car garage and an outdoor balcony. It was written up in several publications. It was the talk of the campgrounds they visited.

Darren and Del did many side jobs such as painting houses and churches. One such job led to the church steeple reconstruction and replacement atop the Walle Lutheran Church near their home. Never afraid of heights, in his early seventies, Del was asked to weld 150 feet atop the new Thompson grain elevator.

At age 71, Del stopped by to check out the demolition site of the Northern Pacific Railway trestle. It crossed the Red River between Grand Forks and East Grand Forks. He came home later and told Marlene he had been made foreman on the spot. Incidentally, he also worked on the same trestle over 50 years earlier. In his eighties, Del met Lake Superior pilot boat captain Ed Montgomery, who hired him to rebuild the entire exhaust system from the belly of the engine room to the top of the smokestack.

Del built his last 16-foot camper from the axles up in his Superior workshop at age eighty-six and took his last trips to Maddock in 2018. Del was a lifelong inventor and held one patent and assisted with the fabrication of another. Whenever Del saw a need for a design solution, he would build it, often out of unconventional parts and pieces.

Del was a storyteller throughout his life, and many of his tales were so fantastical we were sure they could not be true. As we grew older and encountered his various friends and relatives, we realized most of his stories and adventures were indeed factual. In his later years he and daughter Cheryl authored five books for his family, using the thoughts he had written on paper scraps, pieces of wood or napkins and collected in a folder. He called his thoughts and ramblings, “Delspeares.” Del created the name in honor of Shakespeare, another famous author. Monica found one hand-written Delspeares on a yardstick: “I spend a lot of time untying knots in my mind that did not untie because all the loose ends had not been found yet. The answers do come later now because it is easier to be forgiving.” His family knows him best for his story, The Little Rock Fairy, which was set on the Maddock family farm. Del wrote that as a child, he rescued the little fairy from the deep crack in the large pasture rock and the fairy granted him a wish in return. Del wished that the fairy would watch over his family always. Del believed his wish was granted.

The last 14 years of Del’s life were spent in Superior, WI, nine years in his own home and shop. Because of the close attention and social outings provided by daughters Monica and Pamela, his last years were filled with more love and laughter with grand kids, coffee shops, visits from more relatives, more inventions, kind neighbors, and his beautiful apple tree. He spoke often of his desire to return home to Maddock and Monica made a promise to bring him back home.

The family wishes to thank New Perspectives staff for his care and Essentia Hospice for helping him through his last peaceful days.

Del is survived by his children, Monica Tikkanen, Superior, WI, Cheryl Nelson (Robert), New Richmond, WI, Darren Bergsgaard (Linda), Grand Forks, ND, Paula Lucius (Richard), St. Cloud, MN; his grandchildren, Matthew Nelson (Kristi), Aaron Nelson (Yula), Allison Conley(Jay), Kyle Tikkanen, Anthony Laurvick (Jennifer), Siri Bergsgaard, Karr Bergsgaard(Leanna), Ben York (Sara), Alexis Koch(Rory), Michael Lucius, Kristen Lucius; and his great-grandchildren, nephews, nieces and cousins.

He was preceded in death by his parents, his wife Marlene, his daughter Pamela Laurvick, his sister Karen Biegel (Rollin), his brothers, Kenneth Bergsgaard and Marlo Bergsgaard, and his sister-in-law Betty Bergsgaard.

From Marlene’s family, Del is survived by brother-in-law Don Edkins and several nieces and nephews. Passing before Del were his parents-in-law, Margaret and Jack Edkins, brothers-in-law Morris and Doug Edkins, sisters-in-law, Betty Edkins, Anne Edkins, and Bonnie Edkins.

A Celebration of Del’s Life and Burial Service will be held at rural South Viking Church, 5161 31st St NE, Maddock, ND, on June 8, 2024, at 11:00 am. Friends, family and neighbors are welcome to attend services and luncheon. Del’s stories live on in the lives of his children and grandchildren.