Gerald Lewison

Our dad passed away peacefully on December 26th at the New Perspective Senior Living facility in Roseville, MN at 1:30 a.m. Dad was survived by his wife Joyce Lewison, his five children; Lona (Chris) Lyden, Lisa (Andy) Bronson, Todd (Stacy) Lewison, Lori (Tony) Wald and Tom (Andrea) Lewison, 20 grandchildren; Braden, Hailey, Danielle, Allison, Gavin, Logan, Ari, Lindsey, Macallister, Jonny, Elliott, Nolan, Hunter, Amelia, Ella, Adrian, Avery, Adelyne, Matilda and Nora, nine great-grandchildren; Michael, Gavin, Raleigh, Ben, Quinn, Grayson, Declan, Wraith and Stevie Mae, sister, Linda (Steve) Finnes, sister, Sally (Bob) Engelbretson, and sister-in-law Betty Lewison. Jerry was preceded in death by his parents, brother Howard “Howie” Lewison, sister Lola Klein, brother-in-law Bruce Klein, brother Dana Lewison and his great-grandson Sullivan Lewis Lyden.

Dad was born to Judith (Knutson) Lewison and Howard Lewison on June 8, 1944. He was baptized at the Granite Falls Lutheran Church. He attended Country School in Asbury for four years and then transferred to the “City School” and he graduated from Granite Falls High School. Dad was born into a large family with 5 siblings and was also blessed to have many grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins in Granite Falls. Family is a theme that runs deep with dad and we loved hearing the stories of their childhood. In addition to family, music also ran deep in his family and country music brought him countless hours of joy – listening to it and playing it on his guitar when we were growing up. As children we would sit in a circle listening to our dad sing and play the guitar. We also enjoyed the family gatherings that included guitar and singing by our great-uncles and listening to Grandma Judy play the piano. During the last 4 trying years of dad’s life, when he was battling physical issues and slight dementia, music filled his days – every care giver got to hear him sing and watch him air guitar to his favorites. A favorite of dad’s was a CD of music sung by his Uncle John Knutson – you would be hard pressed to find a CD that had been played more than that one. 

Our parents were married on July 3, 1964 in Granite Falls, MN where they lived and raised five pretty stellar kids. Dad told us many times in the twilight of his life that if he wasn’t able to have children of his own he would have searched the world over and would have handpicked each of us. Dad gave up other career opportunities to stay in Granite, in large part so they could be close to our grandparents. We will be forever grateful for this decision as we wouldn’t change anything about our childhood out on Rural Route 3 and we loved being so close to Grandpa Howard, Grandma Judy and Grandma Dora.

My dad and Grandpa Howard had a uniquely close relationship. We all knew it was close to 4:30 as we would see Grandpa walking down the path to our house to meet my dad as soon as he pulled into the garage, and they would be off working on some project together. 

The things dad loved were many and being outside is always one of the first things we think of – the man truly was meant to live outside, working with his hands, building, creating, inventing, and tinkering. Dad built the home of our childhood that was a short walk from Grandpa and Grandma’s house. He worked during the day and built the house in the evenings and on the weekends. We had acres of ravines to explore, a massive backyard filled with oak trees and a pond that dad dug over the natural spring on our property with support from the DNR. We spent countless hours at the pond in our little trailer, having slime fights, hiding from Grandpa Howard under the boat, jumping off old tractor tires, fishing, swimming, and ice skating. He designed a little innertube with rope to keep Tommy safe as neither parent could swim!

After selling our home at Rural Route 3, mom and dad moved a few additional times, one being a small house on the Minnesota river that they renovated. The river house also had a small trailer, similar to the one we had at the pond, but this one was green instead of yellow. While only a few of the grandchildren got to experience the pond, a higher percent were able to spend many summers at the river, fishing, cousin overnights in the camper, exploring the shoreline and tubing down the rapids on small innertubes and air mattresses – dad kept them from being swept down the river by driving his boat from shore to shore collecting children. My dad and Grandpa Howard spent many hours fishing together at the river. They seamlessly swapped time at the pond together for their time together at the river. 

There wasn’t anything dad couldn’t make or fix. We had mini-bikes, motorcycles, snowmobiles, and Allis Chalmers tractors. Dad was proud of a mower he built from a Renault engine – he could mow the grass in record time on that mower. His favorite gift was oil so he could keep all of our vehicles and toys running! His second favorite gift was bird seed. He got his love of birds from Grandma Judy.

Dad, like many from that era, grew up working hard. His work ethic started by working on their family farm. In addition to working the farm dad and his brother Howie hunted and trapped animals for money – including hunting frogs with a slingshot that he said they sold for $0.25 apiece. I questioned that price as it seems a little high? 😊

Dad also got a job working for Bennet Sandburg’s hatchery when he was 14 years old. He didn’t have a driver’s license but was allowed to drive a big dump truck anyway. Part of his job responsibilities were to kill all the roosters. Instead of killing them all he brought home countless roosters to his family farm where they roamed free until they were butchered to help feed the family.

After graduation dad got a job at Rogers Hydraulic where he was a tool and die maker. He got to wear big work boots, jeans and t-shirts where he kept a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his sleeve. It was pretty cool to have a dad who looked like Fonzie! Dad was later promoted to the purchasing department and his appearance made quite a transformation. Lona cried when she saw him walk into the kitchen the morning of his first day in purchasing, sans sideburns, and wearing a suit. I may be dramatizing this a bit but it is pretty vivid in my memory that dad never appeared to go to work / or come back from work with the same level of energy after his move into the office environment. He took the promotion to make more money to support our family, but he was meant to live his life covered in grease. He would come home, change into jean, boots and a t-shirt and go outside until the sun went down. He loves to tell the story about him becoming a pretty good salesperson when he went out to meet with customers to close deals. He was a self-proclaimed bullshit salesman with a pocket of samples. He worked on large contracts with Boeing, the military and offshore oil. Right up to the end, dad spoke of his boss, Stan Erickson, with such love and respect and credits Stan for believing in him and giving him the opportunity to leave the shop and to support his growing family. Dad and mom also bought and sold several homes in Granite Falls to keep themselves busy during their retirement years. 

My dad had a bad fall 4 years ago that left him with a traumatic brain injury and sadly changed the course of this life and his retirement. Before he was cleared to drive again, he would spend hours and hours walking everywhere. I loved getting reports from people in Granite on where they saw dad out walking around! He battled through and was cleared to drive his van again and that opened his life back up to being able to spend hours by the river, the Memorial Park and what was the Upper Sioux Agency State Park. Another fall and health challenges required us to move dad out of Granite Falls and eventually to the metro area where he was blessed to be closer to more of his family members. His room was covered with family photos that he loved to show-off to every caregiver that walked into his room.

Despite life giving him blow after blow dad made the best of his situation and remained hopeful right up to the end that he would get strong enough to walk again and to be able to live independently. He didn’t listen to his physical therapists and came up with his own unique methods of exercise! Dad was loved by all the staff who cared for him, or at least most – he was known to fight back to any staff member who didn’t treat him with respect! Dad was a charmer right to the end and something else that never changed was him allowing the truth to get in the way of a good story!

Dad had a dream to die in the town he was born in but that wasn’t possible due to health challenges. Our tie to Granite Falls is now limited to Doncaster Cemetery that will hold dad’s ashes and a few other cemeteries where additional beloved family members are buried. We picked his burial plot years ago as it brought dad some peace of mind knowing we had a plan for where he would be buried. Dad loved the location as he felt it had the best view. He has also requested that we spread some of his ashes at the state park and Lisa is keeping some for a future trip to Norway to visit our ancestor’s homeland, feels right to bring some of dad back to the place where his family immigrated from.

He was a wonderful dad, grandfather and great-grandfather. He will be missed but we are comforted by the fact that he lives in all of us, and we have a lifetime of stories (some not factual), pictures and memories.

There will be a small family funeral and burial for dad in the spring.

RIP dad.