OBITUARY NOTICE FOR
Arnold W. Thompson, of Litchfield, died Sunday, July 16, 2017, at St. Cloud Hospital at the age of 91.
Funeral services will be held on Friday, July 21, 2017 at 1:30 PM at Anderson-TeBeest Funeral Home in Montevideo. Burial will be at Sunset Memorial Cemetery. Visitation with the family will be one hour prior to the service at the funeral home.
Arnold Walter “Arnie” Thompson was born on November 23, 1925 in Big Bend Township of Chippewa County, MN to Ole and Johanna (Aarseth) Thompson. He was baptized and confirmed at the Big Bend Lutheran Church. He was the youngest child of a wonderfully close knit family in the Big Bend community where he attended country school. He graduated from Milan High School.
After high school, he served in the military from 1944-1946 as a rifle man and scout in the European theater during some of the final campaigns of WWII. He returned to Chippewa County where he met Arlene Mae Jones of Montevideo whom he married in 1946. Their union lasted until her death in 2002.
He and Arlene lived in several places in Central Minnesota, starting in Glenwood where he drove taxi and where their first son, Steven was born. They later moved to Richfield and he attended Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis where he learned electric motor repair. He and a schoolmate then started their own business, Woodlake Appliance Repair.
Arnie loved the outdoors and soon decided to move from “the city”. He bought property on Lake Riley in rural Carver County and built a house where they and their growing family lived from 1958-1969. He loved hunting pheasants with his brothers and nephews, and so loved the taste of pheasant that he bought and hatched eggs, then raised the birds on a vacant lot adjacent to his home at the lake. During those years Arnie had lots of “toys” and owned a motor boat which he used for waterskiing, a snowmobile, and even a single engine plane that was later destroyed in a vicious wind storm. It was a sad day when he went to the airport to survey the damages. The plane was irreparable, but he always kept the propeller.
Arnie always yearned to return to the farm. Even while living on Lake Riley, he began farming on a small scale, renting a barn and raising hogs and sheep, and purchasing a 40 acre farm near Hector where he grew row crops, primarily corn. Even this was not enough, and he eventually sold his lake home and bought a farm in Meeker County where he lived for almost 45 years.
Many people remember Arnie as the owner of the Montgomery Wards catalog store in downtown Litchfield where he and Arlene worked for a number of years. They also managed an apartment building in Litchfield, and he worked in the Litchfield Liquor store to supplement income from the farm. Among their other interests, Arnie and Arlene enjoyed square dancing, motorcycle riding, and horseback riding.
The family attended Zion Lutheran Church in Litchfield and all his children attended and graduated from Litchfield High School.
Arnie is survived by his children: Steven and his wife Catherine of Estero, FL, Terrance of Willmar, MN, triplet sons: James of St. Cloud, MN, Jerald and Jeffrey of Minneapolis, MN and Kimberley of San Francisco, CA; four grandchildren: Alex, Josie, David and Dakota and many nephews and nieces.
He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Arlene; three brothers: Rudolph, Thorfin and Henry; and four sisters: Ruby Torgerson, Elenora Jorgenson, Judell Kolstad and Mildred Blom.