Horace Johnson

Horace C. Johnson, age 96, died at Laurels Peak, Mankato, Minnesota, on Monday, March 21, 2011. He was born July 25, 1914, in Abercrombie, North Dakota, to the late Paul and Mary (Hatlie) Johnson, children of early pioneers in Dakota Territory. Horace attended school in Abercrombie before going on to the North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton. Later he worked in Houston, Texas, where he graduated from the University of Houston in 1939. He was employed as an auditor in the cost accounting office of the Navy Department in New York City. In 1943 he was drafted into the U.S. Army, achieving the rank of first lieutenant. He was stationed at Fort Reynolds in Greenville, Pennsylvania, where he met and married Dorothy Clark on August 5, 1944. He was stationed in the Panama Canal Zone when he completed his service in 1946 and moved to Fargo. In 1978 he retired as president of Northern School Supply in Fargo, and he and Dorothy moved to Minnesota where Horace fulfilled a longtime ambition to build a log house, located near Menahga on the Crow Wing River. Dorothy died in 1993, just short of their 50th wedding anniversary. In 2004 Horace moved back to Fargo, and on May 21, 2005, he married Thora Nelson Dennis, a childhood friend from their days in Abercrombie. Thora died in 2007. Horace was also married for several years to Evelyn Finsness of Fargo, North Dakota. Horace is survived by his son Eric and his wife Kathleen, Alexandria, Virginia; his daughter Nina Johnson and her husband Jeff Tashman, Guanajuato, Mexico; his son Clark and his wife April, North Mankato, Minnesota; four grandchildren, Mari (Christopher), Lorton, Virginia; Marcus (Marita), Concord, Massachusetts; Ida, San Francisco, California; Alena, San Francisco, California; two great-grandsons, Maxwell Horace and Nathaniel Nicholas, Concord, Massachusetts; and one brother, Wallace, Canoga Park, California. He was preceded in death by his parents, brother Vernon, and sister Nora. In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been established in his name to benefit St. John’s Lutheran Church in Galchutt, ND. Funeral Service: Saturday, March 26, 2011, at 11:00 AM, at Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Abercrombie, ND. Visitation: Friday, March 25, 2011 from 5- 7 PM, at Hanson-Runsvold Funeral Home, Fargo.