Maurice Matthew Heisler

Maurice M. Heisler, 78 of Devils Lake, ND passed away on Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at Altru Hospital, Grand Forks, ND. Mass of Christian Burial for Maury will be held on Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 2:00 p.m. at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Devils Lake. Fr. Dale Kinzler will celebrate the Mass and burial will be in St. Joseph’s Catholic Cemetery. Visitation will be held at the Gilbertson Funeral Home, Devils Lake on Friday from 2:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m. and then at St. Joseph Catholic Church from 6:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. with a Rosary and Scripture Service at 7:30 p.m. Serving as Urn Bearers will be Alex Heisler, Mataya Heisler, Matthew Durbin and Christopher Durbin. Reading the Scriptures will be Karla Heisler and Patrick Schmaltz. Gift Bearers will be Jim and Joette Marback and Charlie Schumacher. Music will be provided by Kevin Regan, soloist and JoDee Lagein, organist. Maurice Matthew, the son of Peter and Margaret (Schell) Heisler was born on September 14, 1932 at Rugby, ND. He was reared in the Berwick area and attended some elementary school in Rugby, then moved with his family to Devils Lake and attended St. Mary’s Academy, graduating with the class of 1950. Maurice was united in marriage to Patricia B. Morrow on January 16, 1952 at Devils Lake where they lived, worked and raised their family. Maury worked several jobs including employment at 7-Up Bottling Company, Bridgeman Creamery, and National Tea Company. He then began his 32 year career with Blue Cross and Blue Shield. He was a pioneer in the area of health insurance in the Devils Lake area. As the first Devils Lake BCBS representative he knew the benefits of group health coverage and aggressively sought to insure school employees, businesses and also the individuals of the Devils Lake area. He was proud of his service to the company and the company appreciated his work ethic, dedication and loyalty as an employee. He retired in 1992 and Maury and Pat spent most of their retirement years at their Wood Lake home. Pat passed away July 18, 2009. Maury was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church and a life member of the Devils Lake Elks Lodge. Maury was an outdoorsman and loved to hunt, goose, duck and deer with his family and friends. Many memories come to mind of good times during a hunt. Maurice M. Heisler-“Mr. Baseball”-he played baseball for as long as he could, he watched baseball locally and never missed the action of a Minnesota Twins game on TV or radio. He was recently recognized for his dedicated promotion of the game in the Lake Region area; “That’s A Maury”-he had a special gift as a “Social Butterfly”. He was a gracious host, good conversationalist, good listener and made everyone and anyone feel comfortable, show them a good time no matter when or where- yes that was our Maury. Maury was a loving, dedicated husband, father, grandfather and dear friend to many and though our hearts ache, his memory will be with us forever. Maury is survived by his children, Pam Heisler of Grand Forks and her dear friend, Doug Schell of Devils Lake, Tim Heisler and his wife, Myrna of Devils Lake, Ron Heisler and his wife, Karla also Devils Lake, Marcy and her husband, Pat Volk of Bismarck, ND; grandchildren, Tami (Jeff) Schumacher, Alex (Kim) Heisler, Tara Heisler and Erin (Doug) Noll; Matthew (Anne) Durbin, Trisha (Ben) Adamson, Heather (Brock) Libby, Christopher Durbin; Levi (Randi) Heisler and Mataya Heisler;step grandchildren, Rick Volk and Chris Volk; twenty great grandchildren; sisters, Julie (Verlyn) Scott of San Diego, CA and Rose (Dale) Rockeford of Camas, WA; brother, Ray (Vye) Heisler also of San Diego; sister-in-law, Lola (Jerry) Schmaltz of Fargo, ND Maury was preceded in death by his parents; wife, Pat; daughter, Sonja Durbin; father-in-law and mother-in-law, James and Lucille Morrow.