David Alexander Nelson

David Alexander Nelson died peacefully from pneumonia, a complication of Frontotemporal Dementia, on Wednesday, January 21, 2015 at Elders Home in New York Mills, MN. The staff of both Elders and Hospice of the Red River Valley, Detroit Lakes, MN provided loving, compassionate care in his final days.

David Alexander Nelson was born to Alexander Peyton and Adeline Genevieve (Nygaard) Nelson in Fargo, North Dakota on January 7, 1941, joining sister Janis in Casselton, ND. He was raised and attended school in Casselton until 10th grade, when he moved to Fargo. He graduated in 1959 from Fargo Central where he was both Senior Class President and Most Representative Boy. David continued his education at North Dakota State University, earning a degree in Music Education and a minor in Math. Soon thereafter, while teaching in Casselton, he earned his Masters in Counseling at NDSU. It was while working in the high school relations office at NDSU and doing "color" work for the football announcer that he met Marcia Jean Anderson. They were married December 27, 1967.

After two years of working in Counseling at Osseo, MN high school, David and Marcia relocated to Greeley, CO where David earned his Ph.D. in College Student Personnel Work. They then moved to Fairbanks, AK where David directed the Counseling and Testing Center. In 1972, son Dan was born while in Fairbanks. He returned to the "lower 48" to take a position as Registrar at Valley City State University. Sons Garth and Carl joined the family in Valley City in 1975 and 1979, respectively. He left VCSU as Vice President for Student Affairs for positions in Fargo at St. Luke's School of Nursing and at Merit Care Special Projects . He completed his career at Minnesota State University Moorhead as Associate Registrar, from which he retired in 2004. He then kept busy baking, volunteering at the church, and keeping up the house.

Throughout his life, David was a grammarian—he loved to find misspellings and incorrect usage of grammar in the paper-- and was great at mental math. He loved baking batches of chocolate chip cookies and Special K bars, and then sharing them with everyone – his dentist, doctor, mechanic, friends, and neighbors. He enjoyed serving in leadership roles and earned recognition as a Distinguished Toastmaster and also served as District Governor. He was a music man who loved to break out into song and sang in choirs for almost 60 years. Eventually, dementia took all of these skills and hobbies away, one by one.

In March of 2010, David was diagnosed with Frontotemporal Dementia. For the next five years Marcia and David created memories whenever possible - traveling to Greece, Italy, California, and to the Twin Cities and Rochester. They continued to eat out with friends and enjoyed visits with neighbors and long-time friends.

David was a kind, loving, and gentle man, who was incredibly proud of his children, their spouses, and grandchildren. Upon seeing friends, or meeting strangers, David would eagerly pull out of his wallet the most recent pictures of his grandchildren and beam with pride as he passed their pictures around. David’s entire extended family was very important to him, and took pride in the accomplishments of his his cousins, nieces, and nephews.

David is survived by his wife and best friend, Marcia, three sons and their families: Daniel (Jen), Jonas,and Charlotte of Blaine, MN; Garth (Amy), Claire, and Trygve of Rochester, MN; Carl (Kim), and Adeline of St Paul, MN; sister Janis Wilkins (Jack) of Asheville, NC and their four children and families. He is also survived by his Step-mother Edythe Nelson, and step-sister Nancy Pearson (Paul) both of Minot, ND and several cousins. His parents preceded him in death.

In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to Elders Home, New York Mills, MN, Perham United Methodist Church for community outreach, First United Methodist Church, Fargo for the music program, Hospice Of the Red River Valley, Detroit Lakes, MN or a charity of your choice.