The Olson Zoo Weblog

I just remembered that I never posted the remembrance of my Grandpa Lloyd Falck that was read by my uncle Tom Falck at the funeral in February 2005. Here it is:

Family Remembrances of Lloyd Falck
February 16, 2005

Good morning. I’m Lloyd’s son Tom.

On behalf of my mother Edythe and our family, I thank you for coming today to honor Dad.

I would like to share a few of our memories of Dad.

Lloyd was a quiet man who was quick to offer a helping hand. He was very much in love with Mom, and together they were a team and great parents.

Lloyd was not one to be in the lime-light. In a crowd, he was happy to let Edythe carry on the conversation for both of them. He devoted countless hours over many years helping run the sound booth in this church – an activity that was perfect for him. It was technical, required precision and attention to detail, something that was important, and yet was behind the scenes.

We remember him as a planner, methodical, and precise. As a young boy I would sometimes accompany him to the airport where he would pick up his paycheck from Norwest Airlines. Not one to simply rip open an envelope, he would carefully tap the end of the envelope on the desk to move the contents to one end, then with a paper-cutter (not just a pair of scissors) slice off the other end of the envelope. As I sorted through his papers now 50 years later, I couldn’t help but smile as I came across mail he had recently opened – by slicing off the end of the envelope.

Lloyd’s sense of fairness was illustrated during a family trip in the desert. During a picnic lunch break on a hot day, all of us kids thought we were would die of dehydration as we watched Lloyd very carefully divide, measure, and re-measure the last cold container of pop for all six kids – he wouldn’t allow any of his children to be shorted.

Like many of his generation, Lloyd was proud to have served his country during World War II. Like many of his generation, he carried his pride quietly – he rarely spoke of his time in the service, but in recent years enjoyed wearing his cap emblazoned with “World War II Veteran”. On the rare occasion he could be coaxed into talking about his time in the mid-Pacific, he would tell fascinating stories of how the SeaBees harvested coral, crushed it and sprinkled it with seawater so it would grow together to form runways on the islands of Tinian and Eniwetok – stepping stones for bombers on their way to Japan.

Dad could fix ANYTHING. He taught me not to be afraid to take something apart – and get it back together again. My first 2 wheeler was one Dad had ridden as a small boy. I remember the anticipation when, after he decided I was big enough for the two wheeled bicycle, he completely disassembled it, lovingly hammered out the dents from his childhood, and repainted it a glossy jet black. That bicycle was the biggest, fastest, best bicycle of any in the neighborhood – ‘cause my Dad made it for me.

He loved to work with electrical wiring. It required precise planning to lay out where every possible outlet and switch needed to be. Every one of his children and many of his friends benefited at one time or another from his handicraft – some of the best lighting systems east of Las Vegas. When his new garage was built, it wasn’t “finished” until he had wired it with over fifty outlets and 10 fluorescent shop lights controlled by numerous switches; plus an electric furnace, a chime wired back to the house to signal if the door had been left open, and the telephone. It wasn’t so much that Lloyd ever planned on doing much work in the garage; it was just that when he did, the garage would be perfect.

Lloyd loved his family. Family was at the center of his life. This was evident each year in the tradition dating back to 1948 of the Falck family photo Christmas cards. This was truly a labor of love and pride in his children – the dozens of photographs that all of us children would willingly pose for; the hours he would spend in the basement dark room steeped in the aroma of photo developer and glacial acetic acid (which I think must have been some kind of substitute for the smell of lutefisk); and the dozens of blotter rolls lined up on all the available radiators where the hundreds of Christmas card photos would dry.

Lloyd wasn’t a fisherman, but he was devoted to his children’s happiness. When Karin and I expressed an interest in fishing, he took us to the hardware store where he bought us 10 foot bamboo poles, rigged them with hook and line, and proceeded to Lake Nokomis where we caught (it seemed like) 50 fish in a half hour. It was a magical day.

As an employee of Northwest Airlines, Lloyd could get free airline travel for the whole family. Yet, his joy was in taking the whole family on vacation in the family RV. These were memorable vacations that brought us together as a family. Believe me, togetherness is 6 children and 2 adults on a 6,000 mile month long vacation from Minnesota to California - through the desert with no air-conditioning - and back.

Lloyd loved computers. It was neat as a kid to be able to tell my friends that Dad was a computer programmer. In a time when many people did not know what a computer was, he trained to program the very first computer Northwest Airlines installed for its reservation system, the state of the art “Univac 1”.

His enjoyment of computers spanned more than forty years. While he may have procrastinated from time to time on projects Mom would have for him, if it involved doing something on his computer like creating a mailing list or a phone directory, he was right on it.

Lloyd loved organ music. Pipe organs – to him they were the best sounding instrument. While far from being an accomplished musician, he enjoyed playing a couple of pieces at the end of the day when it was just him and Edythe.

Lloyd loved Edythe. Those two organ pieces he would play almost every night for her were – “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” and “I Love You Truly”.

Thank you each for coming today to remember and say goodbye to Lloyd,

Loving husband,

Great father,

And Friend.

Here is a picture from Grandpa’s 80th birthday party in January 2005:

More pictures of that party are also available.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 30th, 2005 at 1:12 am by Jeff and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.