Sorry to hear of your loss, Sending prayers and condolences from Wis. as we are unable to travel due to health issues.
Lowell A. Mortrude
August 30, 1931 – June 16, 2018
A Memorial Service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, June 20, 2018 at the Daniel Funeral Home in St. Cloud for Lowell A. Mortrude, age 86, of St. Cloud, who passed away peacefully on Saturday, June 16, 2018 at St. Benedict’s Senior Community in St. Cloud. Interment will take place at St. Marcus’s Parish Cemetery in Clear Lake with full military honors.
Visitation will take place one hour prior to services on Wednesday at the funeral home.
Lowell Allan Mortrude was born to Clara and Seymour Mortrude on August 30, 1931 in Minot, ND. After his father’s tragic early death, Lowell and his siblings Jane, Seymour, and Gordon moved with their mother to be with her family in Greenbush, MN. Lowell excelled in baseball and captained the Greenbush Tigers to an undefeated football season. After high school, Lowell attended St. Cloud College and received a business degree.
On July 17, 1954 Lowell married Marcella Mary Mekash of Roseau, MN and then went to serve in the Korean War. Lowell spent the next two years working at the Pentagon. After the war, he returned to St. Cloud Teachers College for his education degree and started a career as a history teacher and high school principal.
Lowell’s four children benefited from his storytelling gift as they traveled coast to coast during long summer car trips. Lowell received his doctorate from North Dakota State University and became a professor of education at St. Cloud State University. He helped train hundreds of educators through his Cooperative Action in Teachers Education (CATE) program. Lowell was passionate about his daily game of golf, he was a prolific gardener with a gift for growing beautiful tomatoes, and he loved a good spy novel.
He is greatly missed by Marcy, his wife of 64 years, his children Lowell Mortrude, Nancy (George) Botz, Stuart (Cathy) Mortrude, and Judy (Steven Mahon) Mortrude, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Lowell was preceded in death by his parents, grandson, Jacob, brothers Gordon and Seymour.
Memorials preferred to the Alzheimer’s Society of MN or St Cloud CentraCare Hospice.
Guestbook
My condolences on the loss of your father and grandfather. He was an awesome teacher/professor/mentor. He so well prepared us for the professional task of teaching. With love for our students and subject matter, he sent us into our classrooms with both the skills and the art of teaching. I remember him and appreciate and use his shared wisdom. He lives on in the teachers he trained.
Reading of Lowell’s death makes me sad for family and friends, but I also smile at my many wonderful memories of this good man. He was a teacher of teachers, a friend to students, parents, kids, educators, and peers. Lowell’s generation of educators made so many of us welcome at SCSU as we pursued advanced degrees and our careers. I appreciated Lowell’s advocacy for public education and for the best possible learning opportunities for children in Minnesota. Lowell was truly as good man. With regrets for being far away and unable to attend his service, I share this poem from Marge Piercy. I am glad for Lowell’s life and for his friendship. Warren Bradbury To be of use by Marge Piercy
The people I love the best
jump into work head first
without dallying in the shallows
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight.
They seem to become natives of that element,
the black sleek heads of seals
bouncing like half-submerged balls.
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again.
I want to be with people who submerge
in the task, who go into the fields to harvest
and work in a row and pass the bags along,
who are not parlor generals and field deserters
but move in a common rhythm
when the food must come in or the fire be put out.
The work of the world is common as mud.
Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.
But the thing worth doing well done
has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.
Greek amphoras for wine or oil,
Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
Services
Visitation
Daniel Funeral Home, St. CloudServices
Daniel Funeral Home, St. CloudSchedule Details
A Memorial Service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, June 20, 2018 at the Daniel Funeral Home in St. Cloud for Lowell A. Mortrude, age 86, of St. Cloud, who passed away peacefully on Saturday, June 16, 2018 at St. Benedict’s Senior Community in St. Cloud. Interment will take place at St. Marcus’s Parish Cemetery in Clear Lake with full military honors.
Visitation will take place one hour prior to services on Wednesday at the funeral home.