BRUCE GORDON TWITE
Bruce Gordon Twite, 80, passed away peacefully in his sleep on March 3, 2016 in Dawson Minnesota.
Visitation will be held on Saturday, March 5 from 3-4:30 PM at Johnson Memorial Home Chapel with a prayer service at 4:30 PM.
Funeral Service will be held Sunday, March 6, 2016 at 2:00 PM at Hanson & Dahl Funeral Home in Dawson, MN. Pastor Kendall Stelter will officiate with burial following at Grace Lutheran Cemetery.
Bruce Gordon Twite was born in Dawson on November 22, 1935 to Martin and Bernice (Danielson) Twite, he spent his childhood there. He had 6 brothers, Martin, Jr., Mons, Gayland, Ray, Don and Steve and two sisters, Joanne and Jean. Bruce worked as a truck driver at a young age, he was a great mechanic and loved to work on cars.
He graduated from Dawson High School and went off to school at Hamlin Univ. in 1953, he moved back to Dawson and married Roberta Jeanne Keintz November 14, 1953. They had three children, Mitch, Nickel and Tami.
Bruce loved working on cars, he spent time in the 1960s building and racing cars around Iowa and Minnesota.
In the middle 1960’s Bruce bought Appleton Livestock where he shipped and raised cattle. He would bring his kids and the neighborhood kids with him in the summer and they would all have a great time with the animals and driving various vehicles. He had many different animals come through the Appleton Livestock, Fred, the goat and Walter, the monkey being a few. Walter spent about 6 years with the family, most of the time with Bruce at the livestock or at the racetrack in the pits waiting for him to finish racing.
Bruce and the family started going up to Big Stone Lake in the 1970’s where they put a trailer and spent weekends with the lake friends from Dawson. He loved having lake toys, the fastest boat, an ATV, a small sailboat, and jet skies. He enjoyed driving the boat around pulling as many skiers as possible and fishing.
In 1977, Bruce moved to Alaska to start a pig farm. Unfortunately, the land he was going to farm on was near the area where they were trying to move the Capitol and the price was out of reach so he moved to Kodiak and worked as a maintenance foreman for New England Fish Company for a few years. Around 1983 he started working for Brechan as a union truck driver and later foreman at the cement plant. He was a proud member of the Alaska Teamsters Union and Operator Engineering Union. In 1988 he met Jan Brenteson in Kodiak and she became a constant companion until she moved back to Minnesota. They spent time in Kodiak and traveling.
Some of the best times of his life was fishing and tinkering with his boat in Kodiak. It was a time when he could smoke a cigar and fine tune the engine while waiting for the fish to bite.
In the late 1970’s he started working with the Lowenberg brothers. He welded crab pots and did maintenance as required for their fishing vessel, The Artic Lady. They became like family to him.
After nearly 40 years in Alaska, he moved to Dawson, MN to finish the last year of his life. We are so thankful to the kind people in Minnesota to make him their family for the past year.
He is survived by his children, Mitch, Nickel (Ed) LaFleur, Tami (Brad) Moe, grandsons, Billy Pierce and Casey Moe; step grandchildren: Misty and Eric LaFleur; brothers, Ray (Chris), Steve (Della) and Don, sister, JoAnn (Rich); sisters-in-laws, Mary Kay and MaryAnn Twite; special friend, Jan Brenteson, numerous nieces and nephews who loved him.
Bruce was preceded in death by his parents; brothers: Martin, Jr, Mons, Gayland; and sister, Jean.
In lieu of flowers, please donate to Johnson Memorial Care Center, Dawson, Minn.
Hanson & Dahl Funeral Home~718 Chestnut, PO Box 1001~Dawson, MN 56232
320-769-4550 hansondahlfuneralhome.com