There is much more about Don's academic and scientific exploits but let's change focus. Our family connections go back to the 70s, no, not the 1970s, the 1870s. In the 1870s Don's great-grandfather, Gulbrand Evenson, and my grandfather, Olai Bergh, were neighboring farmers near Kasson, MN. Both had emigrated from the same area of Norway. Later they entered the seminary and remained friends as they studied to be pastors. Gulbrand is buried in the Bergh Cemetery near Volga, S.D., where Grandpa's church stood. He may have been pastor of the church from which Grandpa retired.
Very much later my cousin, Leslie Negstad, married Don's aunt, Esther Evenson. Though Don and I grew up on farms about four miles apart we attended different country schools. In the early 50s we both needed orthodontia and got braces from the only orthodontist in South Dakota, who officed in Sioux Falls. Every three weeks we were scheduled to visit the orthodontist so our parents took turns driving us. In high school Don was two years behind me. After high school he attended Lutheran Bible Institute in Minneapolis and, with my stint in the Marines, we became classmates at Augustana graduating together in 1964.
Don, and his wife Carol, tired of life in New York so he joined the faculty at South Dakota State University, Brookings, in 1983. He was a professor of biochemistry. For many years they lived on his home farm near Sinai eventually moving to Brookings. This relocation to South Dakota allowed us to reconnect and since my retirement eighteen years ago we've had the opportunity to spend time together.
Honored to lead his memorial service I will certainly miss him.
Takk for alt,
Al
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