Bill's Blog

Tribute for My Father - Sidney Sundstrom

My dad died today.
Sadly and ironically today is Father's Day.

My mother and father divorced when I was two years old. He always lived far away from me. We would meet a few times each year when he returned to Minnesota for business or on vacation. Despite the distance, I always felt close to dad. I loved him and I knew he loved me. From the age of seven to sixteen, I spent three months every summer with my dad's parents, Anna and Simon. Almost every summer, while at grandpa's farm, my dad would bring his family to the farm for a visit. So, maybe that is why I always felt so close to him.

Those were not the only times that we spent together. Memorable to me was the summer of 1965, when I lived with his family in Montgomery, AL. And the month he spent with me in 1970. We had a good time. He was lots of fun and he got to meet many of my friends. Over the years, I often visited him in Mississippi and I tried to visit for a week or two. In the spring of 2008, I spent a couple of months with him.

I loved the stories my dad would tell. Everyone agrees that you could spin a great yarn. He had stories about friends and family. He had stories about business. He never failed to put me in a good mood when he told a story, even when I had heard it before. When I became a pilot, he would tell me stories about his friends who were pilots. When we traveled we shared stories about travel. And I always enjoyed his stories about his days as a boy in South Dakota. He also had some great stories about business. I especially liked his stories about his business in Japan. He had been a long-time customer of Japanese porcelain, but in the 1980's he started selling container loads of high-quality waterless cookware to the Japanese consumer market.

In recent years, his proudest stories were about Camp Victor in Ocean Springs. He did a lot to help the people of Ocean Springs recover from the Hurricane Katrina. Camp Victor was the Lutheran church's key vehicle to help with the rebuilding of the gulf coast. Camp Victor provided accommodations for thousand of volunteers from all over the USA and Canada. The camp also was a center to receive millions of dollars worth of building materials. Dad played a critical role in the start up and continuation of Camp Victor.

My dad loved his family and family stories. Perhaps that is why he became an avid genealogist. He introduced me to his hobby and we shared all of our tricks and methods to find information about our family tree. He also helped reestablish strong contacts with our Swedish cousins. He had visited them and they visited him several times. He often wrote and shared pictures with our cousins in Sweden.

I loved my dad so much. I will greatly miss him.

I wrote a brief obituary for my dad this morning. It follows:

Martin Sidney "Sid" Sundstrom, 84, of Ocean Springs, MS, died early this morning at St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, MN, from pneumonia contracted during his recovery from heart surgery.

Sid was born 27 June 1926 at the Sundstrom homestead in Brooklyn Township near Beresford, South Dakota, to Simon and Anna (Johansson) Sundstrom. He lived at the family homestead until the late 1930's, when the family moved to Minnesota and farmed in the Lake Crystal area. Sid graduated from the Lake Crystal High School. He enlisted and served in the US Army during World War II. He was wounded while serving in Okinawa. Soon after returning to civilian life, he began a life-long career as salesman and then a sales executive. The career led him and his family to many places, including Indianapolis, Niagara Falls, Chicago, West Bend, Montgomery, Birmingham, and finally in 1970 to Ocean Springs where he lived the rest of his life. Sid was an active member of Christus Victor Lutheran Church. He play a significant role in the establishment of Camp Victor, which has been a leader in the recovery from hurricane Katrina. He was well-known and well-liked in the Ocean Springs community.

Sidney Sundstrom was warm and loving husband, father and grandfather. He will greatly missed by his family and friends and the Ocean Springs community.

Sid Sundstrom married twice. From the first union came his sons, Bill and Brian. Sid married LaVera Isabelle Dulitz at Brownsdale, MN, 30 December 1951. LaVera died in 2006. Sid and LaVera had four children: Katherine, Steven, Dawn and Ann.

Sidney is survived by all his children and their spouses: Bill and Betty; Brian and Judy of Orono, MN; Katherine Sundstrom of Connecticut; Steven and Ellen of La Crosse, WI; Dawn Sundstrom and partner, Mitzi Griffin, of Greensboro, NC; and Ann Tietel of Port Washington, NY. He is survived by eight grandchildren: Aricka, Bjorn, Birgitta, Dain, Edward, Shelby, Belinda and Clara. And he is survived by eight great-grandchildren: Athena, Ebin, Eva, Annika, Johanna, Lucianna, Abbie and Judah. He is survived by his brother Vernon Sundstrom of Madelia, MN, and his sister Elinor Daugherty of New Ulm, MN.

Sidney was preceded in death by his parents, Simon and Anna, and his beloved wife of 55 years, LaVera.

Sid will be interned at the Biloxi National Cemetery.