Kenneth A. Crowell

Kenneth Arnold Crowell, 89 of Dertoit Lakes, Minnesota, died Monday, August 17, 2009 at the Minnesota Veterans Home, Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Kenneth was born on July 9, 1920, the son of Chester and Lucille (Chamberlain) Crowell in Hanna, North Dakota. The family later moved to a farm in Shell Lake Township, near Ponsford, Minnesota where Ken spent his formative years. He attended country school at the Spruce Dell School, graduating from the eigth grade in 1934. While growing up in Shell Lake Township, near the eastern border of what later became the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge, Ken enjoyed the outdoors and became a very competent woodsman, trapper and hunter. He never missed a deer season prior to turning 80 years of age and made a number of elk hunts in Montana, goose and wolf hunting in Canada and other destinations and was an avid spear fisherman and angler. During the 1930chr(39)s while still a teenager, his fur trapping for mink, muskrats and beaver allowed him to purchase a truck which he used to haul logs and other cargo which provided him additional income during the Great Depression. On December 1, 1941 Ken was united in marriage to Alma S. Marjama in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. They lived on the family farm for several years until moving into Detroit Lakes in 1943. In late 1943 Ken was drafted in WWII. Following basic training at Camp McCoy, Wisconsin he served with the U.S. Army in the Philippines prior to his discharge in 1945. Upon his return to the U.S. that fall, he again resumed his fur trapping business. Mink pelts were selling for $60 each and he made sufficient income from those furs to purchase a dump truck and a 29 acre farmstead west of Detroit Lakes, where he, Alma and the boys lived for 20 years before purchasing a home east of Detroit Lakes along the Pelican River. During the 1950chr(39)s Ken drove a gravel truck for McGerry Brothers Contractors, trapped in the fall and logged in the winter. In 1957 he purchased a sewage and drainage service that installed septic systems and water lines, did excavating, well work, and plumbing for many rural farm families in Becker and surrounding counties. Kenneth is survived by two sons; Kenneth L. (Lorna) Crowell of Moorhead, Minnesota, Richard L. (Judy) Crowell of Moorhead, Minnesota, one stepdaughter; Patricia (Frank) McAdams of Park Rapids, Minnesota, nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Kenneth was preceded in death by his parents, wife; Alma (9/24/01), one son; Robert Crowell, one granddaughter; Sarah Crowell, four brothers and one sister.