Marvin D. Fjeldseth

Today, is the Lord’s day.
Marvin went home to be with his mother, father and brother, Loren.
He is no longer in pain or is tired. His soul has been refreshed on the wings of an eagle and guided to heaven with the Lord’s staff.
While he was in the land of the living, Marvin’s life journey had many twists, turns and some very hard choices, but through it all, he stood fervent in faith with the Lord Jesus Christ, who was guiding him every step of the way. Ironically, when the man died, the weather was the same way as when he was born, which was the Moorhead area had just finished with an intense snowstorm and then enveloped with bitterly cold temperatures.
Marvin’s journey began in Moorhead, Minnesota January 14, 1939 at St. Ansgar Hospital and baptized at Trinity Lutheran Church (Moorhead).
As a child, he grew up in multiple working poor neighborhoods of Moorhead and South Saint Paul, Minnesota. The United States had just finished the Great Depression in 1933. However, Marvin’s parents continued to struggle economically to find work and to put food on the table.
As a young boy, Marvin became a student on life. He learned the valuable lesson of when your parents are not educated, they have a harder time to be a provider. In addition, he learned about money. Especially, the importance of how to be fiscally tight and to think before one spends.
For example, at the age of ten, Marvin befriended an African American gentleman in downtown Fargo, who shined shoes for a living. It is because of that gentle soul that my dad was able to get his teeth fixed with the money he earned from his first job and gained some much needed self-confidence. Next, came mowing lawns and delivering the local newspapers with his brother, Loren, in order to buy school clothes.
During the 1950’s, Marvin was confirmed at Trinity Lutheran church as well as attended Moorhead High School. A proud Spud, who lettered in cross country, golf and basketball. In June 1958, Marvin received a scholarship to play basketball for Concordia College (Moorhead, Minnesota), but instead chose the Navy, who again offered him the opportunity to play basketball for them. As he tells the story, “I asked the Navy for a little time to think about their offer. I went down to the docks and decided my days playing ball were done. I wanted a different life besides sports.” And his path led him to business.
For four years, Marvin learned the trade of being a storekeeper for the Navy. After his basic training in Chicago, Illinois, Marvin was assigned to the USS SPERRY, which supplied the bigger ships that were docked along the west coast, such as San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle.
Once discharged from the Navy, he returned to Moorhead in June 1962. Three month later, Marvin met his future bride, Faye Mowers at the Bison Café (downtown Fargo). On December 16, 1962, they were married at Trinity Lutheran Church. Besides having fifty-eight years of wedded bliss, they also had four children, whom they love dearly.
Marvin enroll in accounting courses at Interstate Business College (Fargo) in 1963 and was a janitor at the school to pay for his enrollment. Later in 1963, he went to work as an accountant for Branick Swedberg industries (Fargo), and a year later, Marvin was employed by Universal CIT Credit corporation as a collector.
The life that Marvin lived as a child always stuck with him. He knew poverty. He knew the working man. As a collector, he helped many downtrodden souls. His success continued when he went to work for Fargo National Bank in 1967 until 1983. Marvin started in commercial loans and by the time he left the bank, Marvin had ascended to the ranking of Assistant Vice President. He had a short stint at Metropolitan Bank. However, due to Marvin’s willingness to help people, his honest nature and his ability to inform his customers with a truthful and ethical rapport, he was invited to start the Viking Bank project in Moorhead.
Marvin spent 39 years in banking and during that time he earned two degrees in finance and banking from Oklahoma University (Norman) and The University of Wisconsin (Madison).
In short, Marvin was a hardworking, respectable man, who never chased women, drank or smoked. However, he had a huge sweet tooth and loved glazed donuts, which eventually led to him down a path to be overweight, lacking exercise and diabetic.
Over his eighty-one years of life, Marvin was a friend to many people in the surrounding Moorhead area. He loved the family pets, especially cats. Marvin will be missed by his wife, his four children, his brother and twin sister.
In closing, Marvin, we love you. Always.
There will be neither a public viewing nor a public interment. The funeral will be at Trinity Lutheran Church on Friday, January 31, 2020 at 10 a.m. Refreshments will be served afterward in Trinity’s Christian Life Center.