Ernest Vernon Hendrickson

Ernest Vernon Hendrickson passed away on November 28, 2006 at the age of 95. He was born to Charles and Ida Lea Hendrickson on September 14, 1911 on a farm near Adrian, North Dakota, in Lamoure County. Vernon's interest in education prompted him to leave farm life and earn a teaching certificate from Valley City State Teachers College. For five years, Vernon taught a variety of subjects at the Greenland Consolidated School near Marion, North Dakota. He was especially proud of his girl's basketball team that competed to finals in the years 1940 and 1941, losing only to Ayr, North Dakota, in the final game both years. Vernon entered the Navy in 1942 where his career in the weather service began. He remembered fondly his education in meteorology during his service in the Navy and his time in the Hawaiian Islands during World War II. On April 21, 1945, Gladys Granlund and Vernon Hendrickson were married in Jacksonville, Florida. Later that year, Vernon began his long and distinguished career as a meteorologist and hydrologist at Hector Field in Fargo, North Dakota, while continuing his formal education in meteorology at NDSU and the University of Oregon Corvallis. Vernon received several national awards for his work in weather and flood prediction beginning with the tornadoes of June 20, 1957. In 1965, he became Meteorologist in Charge MIC of the National Weather Service office in Fargo which was responsible for predictions covering a three state area. Vernon was given awards for "superior performance" on other occasions as in the spring of 1969 flood in the Red River Valley and for his work during the valley's flash flood in the summer of 1975. After retiring in the 1978, Vernon and Gladys built a new home on Turtle Lake, south of Lake Park, Minnesota, enjoying twenty-five years in the Minnesota lake area with grandchildren in the summer and sunsets on cold winter nights. Vernon continued his interest in many areas including his farm at Adrian, North Dakota, girls basketball, history, and geography. Vernon is survived by his wife, Gladys, at Turtle Lake; a daughter, Dawn Morgan, Fargo; and a son, Loel Hendrickson , Bainbridge Island, Washington. Vernon is also survived by his grandchildren, Dakota Sundance Rudesill, Rebecca, Washington DC and Long Island, New York; Jocelyn Nichole Hendrickson, James Wheeler, Cairo, Egypt; Joel Aquila Hendrickson Nichole Sanislo and one great-grandchild, River Aquila Hendrickson, all Bainbridge Island, Washington. Vernon was preceded in death by his parents, Charles and Ida Hendrickson and his siblings, Oscar, Melvin, Ivan, Alvin and Ethel Rishoi.