We have received notification that a long-time member of our St. Louis Park classes,
Ron Swedlund, has passed away. Many of you may have called him by his nickname,
"Swede". Ron was one of our male classmates who elected not to finish high school
with us in 1958, but decided to join the military during our senior year -- in this case
the Air Force.
Ron found us all later on in life and sought us out in order to attend the last couple
of our class reunions. As with all such military men, we met Ron with open arms, for
we knew he longed for a "home" among his long-term friends during our school years.
Many will recall conversations with the man in the wheel chair.
Ron was born on March 10, 1940 and died on Saturday, May 4, 2019 in Hampton,
Virginia. During his last years Ron had a power wheel chair as a result of having COPD.
He broke his hip at the end of January of this year and was in and out of the hospital.
He finally decided to come to the home of his former wife, Marilyn Swedlund Woody,
on March 1st of this year for essential hospice treatment, and stayed for two months
before passing away.
Visitation has yet to occur. It will be at 10:00 AM, Wednesday, May 29, 2019 (in just
one week from today), with funeral services at 11:00 AM at Lake Community Church,
409 Voyager Drive, Alexandria, MN. A private burial will follow at Fort Snelling National
Cemetery.
Ron was born in Brookings, South Dakota, to Leon and Georgie Swedlund on March 10,
1940. He served in the United States Air Force from 1958 to 1962 at Luke Air Force Base
in Arizona. He married Harriet Stillman in Minneapolis, MN where Lynnelle was born in 1965.
Ron later married Marilyn Clark on August 27, 1971 in Brookings, SD. From this union
came Renae, Shelli and Ron Jr. Ron Swedlund deeply loved his 4 children, 10 grandchildren,
and 6 great grandchildren. He was most proud of his time as a Sergeant in the Douglas
County Sheriff's Posse, where he served for 28 years.
Although Ron was one who actually did not graduate with us, and is therefore not
officially listed on our class graduating roster, we added his name to our class list anyway,
so that we could finally add an In Memory notice here. Ron Swedlund was nevertheless
a man who never forgot his roots with us in St. Louis Park schools, and thus we thought
we would not forget him either.
Roger Johnson
Ron lived on Jersey and I lived on Louisiana. We met at Lenox in 5th grade. Got into a lot of trouble together Like borrowing tomatoes from a neighbor's garden and painting his garage. The only time we ever had a snow day we spent it playing army in a swamp area near Eliot school. Later on ran into his mother at VFW bingo.
Nice guy
Marv Shedlov