Drell E. Bernhardson

Pastor Drell Earl Bernhardson was called back into the arms of the Lord on January 13, 2013, at the age of 93. He was born on April 4, 1919 to Elvin and Florence Bernhardson in Comstock, Minnesota. He grew up on the farm, the eldest of eight children and graduated from Comstock High School at 16 years of age. He attended Moorhead State for 2 years and because of the depression, worked on the farm for 2 years before returning to graduate from Concordia College in Moorhead. Drell went into the seminary and was ordained as a Lutheran pastor from Augustana Seminary in Rock Island, Illinois in 1945.

Drell was united in marriage to Adeline E. Dekko of Ada, Minnesota on June 18, 1944 and spent over 68 years together in their life’s work in the church. Drell served at Swaborg Lutheran near Hooper, NE, First Lutheran in Grove City, MN, Messiah Lutheran in Fargo, ND, Thabor Lutheran in Wausa, NE and St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Pender, NE.

He and Adeline touched many lives in the life long ministry together. Upon retirement from the ministry, they returned to Fargo, ND in 1984 and became members of Bethesda Lutheran Church. In addition to providing for scholarship funds at three colleges, Drell and Adeline established the first of its kind Distinguished Endowed Chair in Lutheran Studies at Gustavus in 1999, a model subsequently emulated by other Lutheran Colleges. They then moved to the Twin Cities in 2008, the same year that they had received Honorary Doctorates at the Gustavus’s Commencement.

Drell was preceded in death by his parents, Elvin and Florence Bernhardson and his daughter Carol Lynne Bernhardson. He is survived by all of his siblings, Betty Leiseth, Lucille Schumann, Lois Bernhardson, Edmund Barbara Bernhardson, Helen Kassenborg, Charles Helen Bernhardson, and Walfred Marilyn Bernhardson. He is also survived his wife, Adeline Bernhardson; his three sons, Mark Ivy Bernhardson, John Kathleen Bernhardson, and Paul Nancey Bernhardson as well as 13 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren.

A visitation will be held Friday, January 18, 2013, from 5 – 7 pm., in Wright Funeral Home, Moorhead, MN. The funeral service will be held at Bethesda Lutheran Church in Moorhead, MN on Saturday, January 19, 2013 at 3 pm. Interment will follow at Evergreen Memorial Cemetery, Moorhead, MN.

Memorials are preferred to the Bernhardson Scholarship funds at Gustavus Adolphus College, St. Peter, MN, Concordia College Moorhead, MN, Midland Lutheran College, Fremont, NE, or to Bethesda Lutheran Church, Moorhead, Minnesota.