Carl V. Bloomquist

Carl Vernon Bloomquist age 88 died as the result of complications from Parkinson’s disease Saturday January 27, 2018 at Heartland Care Center in Devils Lake ND. He was surrounded by family and Hospice and the Caregivers of Heartland where he has spent his last years in their kind and loving care.

Carl was born July 29, 1929 the oldest of twins to Mathias and Jennie (Anderson) Bloomquist at 814 4th St. in Devils Lake ND. They were delivered by a nurse midwife. Carl grew up on the family farm north of Devils Lake and attended St. Mary’s Academy. Carl and his twin brother Dale both joined the US Navy in 1948 and both served 4 years active duty. Carl served aboard the USS HANK DD702 with home port of New Orleans, the DD702 took reservists on training sea trials to the US base at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. At the outbreak of the Korean Conflict the DD702 was assigned to the Sea of Japan and Korea. On December 24, 1950 Carl was aboard the DD702 that was part of the Pacific Fleet that withdrew the First Marine Division from the harbors of Hamhung and Hungnam following the withdrawal from the Chosan Reservoir.

Returning home from service in 1952 Carl attended Lake Region Junior College graduating in 1954, He attended Concordia College, Moorhead MN, and received his Bachelor of Science in Education from Mayville State Teachers College in 1956. On June 24, 1955 he married Alta Nelia Lindaas at St Olaf Lutheran Church. Carl began teaching in Minot ND, where he was a psychology teacher, counselor and chairman of the guidance department at Minot Senior High School from 1956 to 1969. Carl attended many class reunions the last one was the 55th reunion of the class of 56, he was always addressed as Mr. Bloomquist. Some of his former students would be pivotal in the Bull Session reunions. In 1960 he received his Master of Arts degree in guidance and counseling from UND and did post graduate work at Palo Alto, California. In 1969 Carl moved his family to Bismarck, ND where Carl was the Head Counselor for United Tribes Employment Training Center. In 1970 the family moved back to the family farm in Harding Township and in 1978 put the finishing touches on a new farm home they designed and built themselves with the help of friends and neighbors. Carl was active in the ND Farmers Union serving as Ramsey County President and also on the NDFU state board as district director for 8 years. In 1988 Carl was elected as a Ramsey County Commissioner and served in that capacity until 2000.

Carl also became interested in recording and sharing his and others military history and started the first ship reunion of the USS HANK DD702 in 1989 which still has reunions every year around the country recognizing sailors from WWII through Vietnam who served aboard the “tincan” USS HANK. From that small beginning Carl started the North Dakota Bull Session and Maritime Museum in 1990 the first Bull Session had former ND Governor Bill Guy a WWII “tincan sailor” as the featured speaker, during the next 22 Bull Sessions hundreds of reunion attendees came. Each Bull Session would feature a different Branch of service. Navy, Army, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, National Guard and many different special groups Nurses, Corpsmen, Infantry, and others they also featured speakers from all around the country including Admiral Bill Owens who at the time he spoke was the vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, also Rear Admiral Jeff Fowler who was the Superintendent of the US Navy Academy. They were both former high school students of Carl’s, as were other notable speakers. Each Bull Session had “The Log” which was a published booklet of veteran’s recollections and memories of their time in service to our country. The North Dakota Bull Session no longer meets but North Dakotas only Maritime Museum still is in the Memorial Building in Devils Lake ND being managed by the RSVP program. Carl was also one of the first to petition the US Navy for a vessel named USS North Dakota which is now one of the Navy’s newest submarines.

Carl and Alta traveled extensively around the USA attending his ship reunions visiting relatives in Canada and vacations in Hawaii. His most important travels were several trips to Stromsund Sweden and Finland to visit many relatives there. He treasured the reconnection with his family there and several of them traveled to America to visit Carl’s family here and his farm.

Carl was a member of the American Legion, FOE, BPOE, IOOF, DAV and a Life Member of the VFW where he served on the color guard and was the Post Commander for a number of years. He was honored to “fire salute” at funerals of fellow veterans and march in numerous parades, memorial and Veterans Day commemorations. Carl was an active member of St. Olaf Lutheran Church and served on the church council and was congregation President. Carl never really retired he was always helping on the farm and active in community events including the development of the Centennial Farm Project that recognized family farms that had been in families for 100 years. He was also an active advocate for family farms and often went to Bismarck and Washington DC to advance the interests of family farms. Carl had many titles but none were more important than Husband, Father, Grandfather and Great Gpa.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years Alta (Lindaas) Bloomquist; son Rudi (Dianne) Bloomquist; granddaughters Michelle (Phil) Thomas, Traci Todahl; great grandsons Caleb Thomas and Maddox West; sister-in-law Betty Bloomquist; nephews CJ Bloomquist, John Jennings; nieces Siggie (Phil) Stillman, Elsa (Tom) Guiney, Cecila (Ken) Lingle, Caryl (Bob) Rutten and all their families, also many cousins in Sweden and Finland notably Sven Erik Malmberg, Ingalill Enarsson, Pia Viscor, Maj and Bengt Kinnbo and Katja Liljekvist.

Carl was preceded in death by his parents, brother Jim Bloomquist, sister Ione and brother-in-law Norman Jennings, and twin Brother Dale who died November 13, 2017.

Well done good and faithful servant welcome to the kingdom of God.

Memorials can be directed to the St Olaf building fund, the VFW honor guard. Please as a special request, help veterans you know tell and record their time and experiences. They are not telling stories they are sharing history, stories begin “once upon a time”, these histories begin “this is what happened”

Funeral Services will be held on Monday, February 5, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Olaf Lutheran Church, Devils Lake with Reverend Jim Paulson officiating. Burial will be in the Devils Lake Cemetery with Military Honors accorded by the Neathery-Simensen Post #756, Devils Lake Veterans of Foreign Wars and the North Dakota Military Funeral Honors Team-Navy. 

Visitation will be held at the Gilbertson Funeral Home, Devils Lake on Sunday, February 4th from 3:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. and on Monday at the church one hour prior to the service.