Obituary: For Denny Seefeldt, Scandia’s first mayor, civic duty was a way of life

Mary Divine, Pioneer Press
·5 min read
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Denny Seefeldt, who holds the distinction of being the last town board chairman of New Scandia Township and the first mayor of Scandia, believed that active involvement in your community helps strengthen democracy and contributes to a just society.

“Civic duty was important to him,” said his daughter, Lori Bieging, who lives in Stillwater. “It was a pretty strict moral code. There is right, and there is wrong. I often called him a true-north compass.”

Seefeldt, who held public office in Scandia from 1997 to 2010, died of natural causes Sunday at Boutwells Landing senior living community in Oak Park Heights. He was 88.

When he was seeking to be the city’s first mayor in 2006, Seefeldt said he was running because he wanted to continue serving his community. “I suppose we will be making history, but that’s not what’s driving me,” Seefeldt said. “I’m more concerned about building on all of the good things we’ve done in the past. I’d like to follow through.”

The city was incorporated on Jan. 1, 2007, and Seefeldt led Scandia through the transition from township to city government, including chairing the city’s comprehensive plan committee.

Seefeldt also was instrumental in the successful completion of many projects in Scandia, including construction of the city’s Fire Hall/Public Works building.

“Mayor Seefeldt has represented the citizens of Scandia for 14 years with fairness and competence by thoughtful deliberation of essential issues facing the Town Board and City Council,” read a city resolution marking his retirement from politics in December 2010.

“I’ve been involved in my church or community or the state or the country for 60 years,” Seefeldt told the Pioneer Press at the time. “Sixty years. That’s enough time.”

Wisconsin roots

Seefeldt grew up on a farm in Wittenberg, Wis. He played football and baseball and was valedictorian and student council president at Wittenberg High School.

After graduating in 1954, he attended the University of Wisconsin – River Falls for a year before enlisting in the U.S. Army, where he trained in finance and soil engineering. He served in the Army Corps of Engineers in Okinawa, Japan, and was discharged from active duty in 1959.

He then transferred to the Army Reserve and went back to the University of Wisconsin – River Falls, where he majored in agriculture and minored in chemistry. During his junior year, he met Carol Busch; the couple married in 1960.

“She was smart, so I asked her for a date right after Thanksgiving,” Seefeldt wrote in a book of memories shared with his family. “By Christmas we were steady.”

While at university, Seefeldt got to see John F Kennedy and Jackie Kennedy. “I got to shake hands with Jackie Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt and just missed Queen Elizabeth,” he wrote.

“Kennedy was running for president, and Wisconsin had a primary in those days. UWRF was kind of a hotbed for Democratic politics so he kicked off his campaign there.”

Seefeldt served as president of his college class and was a member of the student Senate and the student advisory committee.

He graduated from UWRF in 1961 and was discharged from the Army Reserve in 1962.

Life in Minnesota

In 1964, Seefeldt received his master’s of science degree from the University of Minnesota in soil physics with a minor in agricultural engineering. He later completed coursework and oral exams toward a doctorate degree in adult education at Florida State University.

The Seefeldts had three children: Todd, Lori and Lisa.

After he graduated, the family moved to Fergus Falls, where Seefeldt worked as a soils agent for University of Minnesota Extension. He then worked for Extension in Cloquet, Minn., for two years.

Settling in Scandia

In 1968, Seefeldt took a job as an agricultural agent for Extension in Washington County, and the family moved to Stillwater and later to Withrow. They moved in 1987 to a 17-acre property in Scandia, where the Seefeldts tended a huge vegetable garden.

Seefeldt was an active member of Elim Lutheran Church and was the volunteer groundskeeper at the cemetery. He also was active in the Scandia-Marine Lions Club, helped coach the Stillwater Area High School Nordic ski team and helped form the Scandia Veterans Memorial.

He loved hunting, competing in the Birkebeiner and playing golf. “He was always working outside,” Bieging said. “He was a runner and a skier, and he was always very physically active.”

Seefeldt was an avid reader and loved learning about history, said his daughter, Lisa Shrum, of New Richmond, Wis. “Dad always said the only dumb question is the one you don’t ask,” Shrum said. “He was always pushing me to keep seeking and learning. He also instilled a sense of fairness.”

Son Todd Seefeldt, of Finland, Minn., remembers family camping trips to the North Shore – playing cribbage, hiking, exploring and reading. “As soon as he finished his latest spy novel or mystery thriller, the book was passed along to me,” Todd Seefeldt said. “Even as his condition worsened over the last few years, we still found time to discuss whatever we were each reading at the time. It was always a treat to find that Dad and I had read the same books and loved the same authors.”

Funeral details

Seefeldt is survived by his wife, Carol; his children, Lori Bieging, Todd Seefeldt and Lisa Shrum; six grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

A funeral service for Seefeldt will be held at noon on Wednesday, May 22 at Elim Lutheran Church in Scandia, with visitation two hours prior.

Roberts Family Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.

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