Dean Rodney Hedlund, age 81 of Annandale, passed away on January 13, 2024 at the St. Cloud VA Community Care Center.
Dean was born August 19, 1942 at University Hospital in Minneapolis, MN to William Sexton and Opal (Longwell) Hedlund. As an infant Dean lived in Minneapolis for a short period of time and then moved to Sausalito, California while his father worked in the shipyards during WW II. He then moved back to Minnesota with his family and settled on a farm in Kingston Township. He attended 8 years of grade school in the one room school house at Happy Corner. He attended high school in Cokato until joining the US Navy on January 14, 1960. He attended boot camp at the Naval Training Center in San Diego, California. Duty stations during his service years included Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois, Puerto Rico, and aboard an LST (Landing Ship Tank) off the coast of Vietnam. On April 29, 1966 he was honorably discharged as an E4 Yeoman.
After his discharge from the Navy, Dean worked for a time at a railroad. While working for a mechanical contractor, he was accepted into an apprenticeship program for plumbing through the plumber’s union. He attended and graduated from Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis as a plumber. He was a proud member of the Plumber’s Union Local 15. During his career as a plumber/pipefitter, Dean worked in many locations in Minnesota and throughout the United States, Canada, as well as the McMurdo Research Station in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. He purchased an acreage near Stanley Eddy Memorial County Park in rural Annandale, MN where he lived until the time of his death.
Dean enjoyed broom hockey, demolition derbies, pitching horseshoes (state champion), ice and spear fishing, traditional bow hunting, deer hunting with his grandsons on his property, watching high school and college wrestling, riding his Harley, spending time with family and participating in grandkids activities, and watching the sandhill cranes that would visit his property. He was a lifetime member of the Kingston American Legion where he had served as Commander, as well as a lifetime member of Post 7664 VFW and a lifetime member of Chapter 37 DAV.
Dean is survived by his daughters, Stacy (Buck) Twardy of Hutchinson, Jenny (Eric) Iverson of Dassel, grandchildren Jordan and Nathan Twardy, Tanner, Alexis, and Chloe Iverson, and great granddaughter Noelle Iverson Hamade, sisters Kay Anderson of Dassel and Linda (Alan) Hewitt of Kasota, brothers Darrel of Kingston, and Dale (Cindy) of Hutchinson and many nieces and nephews, and his cat Baroni. He was preceded in death by his parents, brother-in-law Jim Anderson, and sister-in-law Nancy Hedlund.
Memorial service will be held at 11:00 AM on June 8, 2024 at the Kingston Community Center with visitation 9:30 – 11:00 am. Interment with Military Honors will be at Sunset Cemetery at Happy Corner just outside of Kingston.