James L. Nygaard

James Lowell Nygaard was born on March 27, 1932, in Moorhead, MN. Throughout his junior high, high school, and college years, he was active in plays and band. After graduating from Moorhead High School in 1949, he attended NDSU in Fargo, ND, and UND in Grand Forks, ND, then "settled into" Concordia College in Moorhead, graduating with a B.A. in Business in 1955. During these years he also worked at M&H service station and Cass Clay Creamery.

Jim lived in Moorhead all 80 years of his life, except for two years of service (1955-57) in the US Army, assigned to a band in France. Back home, he worked a stint at Melberg's Church Supply store in Moorhead, then became a claims supervisor and accountant for Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Fargo. Working as a "social worker" in adoptions for Children's Village for four years was Jim's favorite job. He also enjoyed and appreciated being president of the Trinity Lutheran Church council in 1967. He finished all coursework toward a Master's Degree in "Guidance and Counseling" at MSU while meeting and dating Evadne Jewel Gilbert.

When he married Evadne on August 26, 1972, Jim was working full time at Diercks Printing in Moorhead, whose bookkeeping he had done from home part time since 1964. Mark Lowell Nygaard was born to them on June 22, 1973. Soon after this, Jim went back to doing his bookkeeping from home, and worked full-time as a real estate appraiser (primarily of homes) for Moorhead Federal Savings and Loan (later called Midland Federal), and then Metropolitan Federal Savings and Loan in Fargo, until 1989. Jim was a very conscientious worker in all his jobs, and a very faithful, loyal, devoted son, grandson, nephew, husband and father. In 1983, he had led his family to Bethel Evangelical Free Church in Fargo but eventually couldn't be very active there because of his health, which was finally explained in 1989, when he was diagnosed as having heart disease. After recovering (but not entirely) from his open heart surgery of April 1990, he tried working again, for a private appraiser, but couldn't manage it. From then on, he had to limit his work to his bookkeeping from home until his employer retired in 1994. After that, Jim found other ways to be useful, such as volunteering for the Salvation Army in Fargo.

By 2005, Jim's post-surgery depression, anxiety, and cognitive problems had grown to a diagnosis of Vascular Cognitive Impairment, and gradually worsened to the point of adding Alzheimer's Disease to the diagnosis. He suffered with this, and its complications, until the day his Lord and Savior rescued him and took him home to be with Him in the place He had prepared for him, on November 8, 2012.

Those left to cherish Jim's memory are his wife, Evadne Nygaard - Moorhead, MN; his son, Mark Nygaard - Fridley, MN; two sisters-in-law, Faith and her husband, Arend DeYoung - Sioux Falls, SD, and Leila Gilbert-Nasers and her husband, George - Worthington, MN; his nephew, Seth Gilbert - Dubuque IA; three nieces, Shauna and her husband, Randall Johnsen - Clermont, IA, April and her husband, Dave Ramsaran - Lewisburg, PA, and Crystal and her husband, Derald Hallem - Sioux Falls, SD; two grandnephews: Detrian Hallem - Sioux Falls, SD, and Naveen Ramsaran - Lewisburg, PA.

Jim was preceded in death by his aunt, Inez Nygaard (1966); father-in-law, David Henry Gilbert (1974); grandmother, Alice Nygaard (1976); brother-in-law, David Hugh Gilbert (1980); mother, Mildred Nygaard (1984); and mother-in-law, Gwenda Gilbert (2003).

Funeral Service: Monday, Nov. 12, 2012, at 2:30 PM in Korsmo Funeral Chapel, Moorhead, with Visitation from 12:30 to 2:30 PM prior to the service.

Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery, Moorhead.