Posted: Wednesday, 28 July 2010 10:09AM
Nilsestuen Memorial
Hundreds of mourners have turned out to remember Wisconsin Agriculture Secretary, and Arcadia native, Rod Nilsestuen, who drowned last week while swimming in Lake Superior.
Nilsestuen was remembered at Tuesday's memorial service at Bethel Lutheran Church in Madison as an affable, compassionate and open-minded man - as well as a trickster with a sense of humor. Gov. Jim Doyle joined colleagues, friends and family in paying respects to Nilsestuen. Doyle says Nilsestuen, who took the ag secretary's job in 2003, "had a big, big vision."
The 62-year-old was volunteering with Habitat for Humanity last Wednesday in Michigan's Upper Peninsula when he went for a swim and drowned. Burial is Friday near Arcadia, where Nilsestuen was raised on a dairy farm on land his great-grandparents homesteaded in 1866.
|
E-Mail
Print
