John M. Nord

John M. Nord, 68, Devils Lake, ND, died Tuesday, December 1 at Valley Senior Living in Grand Forks.

A Graveside service will be held on Saturday, July 24, 2021 at 3:30 p.m. at the Devils Lake Cemetery with Reverend Daniel Voth officiating.  The celebration of John’s life will continue at the Devils Lake Elks Lodge immediately following the graveside service.

John Marvin Nord was born July 24, 1952 in Rugby, North Dakota to Marvin Orlando and Inger Johanna (Kristoffersen) Nord, a Norwegian immigrant. He was baptized and confirmed at Zion Lutheran Church in Churchs Ferry. John graduated from Churchs Ferry Public School in 1970 and was a proud member of the Churchs Ferry Raiders Basketball team, scoring over 1,000 points before there was a 3 point line. After he graduated from high school, he attended ND State College of Science and graduated from Devils Lake Junior College (now Lake Region State College) with a certificate in Civil Engineering Technology.

On June 30, 1972, he was united in marriage to Elonda Lannoye. They lived in Egeland at the Stebleton farm, while John worked for North Central Consultants out of Jamestown at the Nekoma Missile site. They then moved to the George and Lilly Lannoye farm near Penn, where he spent many years as the Quality Engineer for Sioux Manufacturing, traveling all over the country. John also was employed by Dakota Tribal Industries (DTI) in Fort Totten. In 1994, he become a partner of Dakota Sportwear, an embroidery company based in Minneapolis with the manufacturing site in Devils Lake. The company had  contracts for the NBA, MLB, and NHL championships caps. In partnership with Mike Yoder, Decorated Wearables was born in 1996 providing local embroidery and screen printing services. After a fire destroyed Dakota Sportswear in 2008, John served as the Airport Manager of Devils Lake Regional Airport until he retired in January 2020. He was proud that the airport earned the “2017 Commercial Service Airport of the Year” award sponsored by the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission in partnership with the Airport Association of North Dakota.

John was a member of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Devils Lake, where he served in numerous roles, including congregational President, Head Elder, Mission Board, and Worship Leader. He was a lifetime member of the Elks Lodge 1216 and was named Elk of the Year in 2014. He liked to travel, visiting 47 of the 50 states and countries including Norway, South Korea, China and many others. He enjoyed having a cold one with his friends and buddies, but the thing that brought him the most joy was spending time with his girls, grandkids and family. He proudly earned the nickname of “Gruber”, serving as Grandpa Uber for Anna and Jacob.

John is survived by his daughters:  Stephanie (Mike) Shock of Devils Lake and Nicole Nord of Boise, ID; his grandchildren Anna and Jacob Shock; his brother Olaf (Fran) Nord of Churchs Ferry and sister Karen (Rod) Williams of Leeds, ND; mother of their children, Elonda Nord of Devils Lake; nephews and niece Jesse Williams, Samantha Williams, Tyler Lannoye, and Grant Lannoye; godsons Tyler Lannoye and Zachary Kakela;  aunts – Marit Christensen, Drammen, Norway and Joyce Nord, Larimore, ND.

He was preceded in death by his parents and aunts and uncles.

Memorials may be sent to PO Box 596, Devils Lake, ND.