A Memorial Service for 92-year-old Arnold David Regier of Mountain Lake, Minnesota, will be held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday morning, April 18, at Bethel Mennonite Church of Mountain Lake. The church is located at 301 9th Street North.
A private family graveside service will be held at Mountain Lake City Cemetery.
Visitation will be at Sturm Funeral Home-Mountain Lake Chapel, on Monday, April 17, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The funeral home is located at 420 10th Street North.
Online condolences to the family may be e-mailed to: www.sturmfh.com.
Sturm Funeral Home-Mountain Lake Chapel, is handling the arrangements.
In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to Bethel Mennonite Church, Mennonite Central Committee or the Africa Inter-Mennonite Mission.
Arnold D. Regier passed away peacefully on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 at the Good Samaritan Society, Sogge Memorial Home in Windom, Minnesota, surrounded by his family.
Arnold David Regier was the fourth of eight children born to Reverend David and Barbara Regier. He was born at home on the farm near Mountain Lake on January 25, 1925. He came to faith in Jesus at a young age and was baptized at the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren Church (EMB), today the Cornerstone Bible Church, in Mountain Lake.
Arnold graduated from Mountain Lake High School in 1943 and later attended Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota. He completed his degree in Agriculture at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and returned to Mountain Lake to farm.
A young teacher from Freeman, South Dakota came to Mountain Lake and became friends with Arnold’s best friend and his fiancé. The couple thought that Elaine Waltner and Arnold might be a good match, and they set up a blind date. Their romance grew into love for a lifetime, and the couple married on August 21, 1954, in South Dakota. They enjoyed 62 years together.
Arnold and Elaine’s first two daughters were born in Mountain Lake. In 1957, the family traveled overseas to serve in the Belgian Congo in the village of Mutena. Arnold used his agricultural knowledge to help community members learn improved methods of crop and poultry farming. The couple’s son Arne was born during the Africa years. The family returned to Mountain Lake in 1960, where Arnold resumed farming the Regier family farm in partnership with his brother, John. Two more daughters soon joined the family.
Arnold served on the Mountain Lake Publi School Board, the Cottonwood County Soil and Water Conservation Board and was active at Bethel Mennonite of Mountain Lake where he was a long-time member. He especially enjoyed singing in the choir and leading the adult Sunday School class that he taught for many years.
Arnold loved nature and enjoyed sharing his love of birdwatching with his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and the Mountain Lake Birdwatcher’s Club. In retirement, he and Elaine gardened together, went for long walks in the woods on his farm and enjoyed spending time with their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Being a good steward of the land he farmed was one of his passions. He worked to restore some of the prairie land along the river bottom land he owned and taught his children and grandchildren to enjoy and care for the land. Arnold taught his family good values by setting a wonderful example. He will be greatly missed by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Arnold is survived by his wife, Elaine Regier; children, Kirsten (William) Freitag, Arne (Penny) Regier, Ruth (Mark) Forsline and Carol (E.J. Jordan) Regier; siblings, Elfrieda (Melvin) Loewen, Milton (Lenora) Regier, John (Edna) Regier and Mary Regier; grandchildren, Andrew, Nicholas (Cheryl), David and Jessica Freitag, Tim (Tosha) and Ryan (Helena) Mattison, Sarah (Jamin) Hacker, Aaron, Emily, Adam and Abram Regier and Elena and Eli Forsline; 10 great-grandchildren, along with many nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his daughter, Catherine (Bruce) Mattison; brothers, R. A. Regier, Elmer Regier and sister, Evelyn Einfeld.