Harold Lundquist

Life Memories of Harold Lundquist

Harold was born August 9th, 1923 in the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. He had an older brother and sister who were twins, 10 years older than he was. He was named after his father and was called junior while he was growing up, although he hated the nickname. He lived in Minneapolis in his early years and then in Chicago through his high school days. Every summer during high school, his mom would send him to Maple Plains, Minnesota, just west of St.Paul/Minneapolis, to help her brother Ernie and his wife on their farm. They didn't have any children and appreciated Harold's help during the summer. He learned to milk cows, teasing the cats with the milk he would squirt at them. He helped his uncle with the hay but would tell us how he turned too tight once and spilled all the hay off the wagon while his uncle yelled at him and told him what a city boy he was. He learned not to do that again. He showed us later, when we visited the farm in 1967, the bedroom he stayed in during his high school summers and about the violent rain storms they would occasionally have.

Chicago had an amusement park that was opened in 1904. It was called Riverview Amusement Park and on a picture of his sister Marcella that she sent him in the war, she mentions on the back, "Guess where this picture was taken, you should know, you practically lived there." His favorite ride was a roller coaster named "The Bobs". It was the prize ride of the park. Another was an airplane like ride that you moved a wing from side to side to enhance the ride and he taught us kids at the LA County fairgrounds much later to enjoy that ride very much. The first high school he went to, Lane Tech High School, bordered Riverview and that's why "he almost lived there". Later his mom moved close to Senn High where he graduated in 1941. He learned drafting at Lane Tech and Senn and that became his life's work, starting at a firm in Chicago before he was drafted into the army. Harold had several engineering jobs throughout his career. He was able to support the family on his income and Aili stayed at home to raise her 3 sons and a daughter.

Harold met his wife, Aili Hannula in the spring of 1942 & they were married on Dec. 19, 1942. Harold was drafted into the army, Jan. 15, 1943. He went to Basic Training at Fort Hood, Texas. He went to radio operator school and was assigned to the 601st Tank Destroyer Reconnaissance Battalion attached to the Army's 3RD Division. Harold became a radio operator in a Half Track that was used as an Artillery Spotter. He was sent to Algeria and Tunisia in North Africa, and then to the invasion of Italy at Anzio and then marched into Rome. They landed in France, and then chased the Germans up the Rhone River Valley through France and across southern Germany before going into Austria where he was in Salzburg when the war ended. He was discharged Oct. 31, 1945. In North Chicago, Harold and his mother went to the Swedish Covenant Church. His mother was a very godly woman who loved the Lord and prayed for him daily, along with his new wife Aili, while he was serving his country in the Army with many of his school time friends. Their prayers were answered as Harold was never wounded during the 2 years and 4 months he was overseas. He did get malaria in North Africa and would exit the war with damage to his hearing that got worse through the years. Harold went back to Chicago to a wife he hadn't seen in over 2 years and a young son who was already over 2 years old that he had never seen before going overseas. He and Aili lived in Chicago until Jul. 1949 when they moved to Libertyville, Illinois. In Oct. 1953 they moved to West Covina, CA. They lived there until Jan. 1967 when they moved to their current home in Lakewood, CO.

Harold loved Colorado and the cooler weather that Denver had compared to L.A. He had grown up in Minneapolis and Chicago and was very familiar with cold and snow. He worked at Bechtel in L.A. doing piping design of power plants. He worked for 2 different engineering firms in Denver, mainly Stearns Roger and did piping design of many mining projects. He was sent to Wisconsin on a pulp and paper project that enabled him to have his first experience of flying. He enjoyed the view but missed being away from his "honey". Harold retired from work in 1986 and was able to visit many of America's beautiful places to see with his wife Aili and son David.

In early Jan. 2004, Harold was dying of Prostate Cancer. Aili asked him what he would say if he died and Jesus asked him "Why should I let you into my Heaven?" God can't let sin into Heaven or it wouldn't be Heaven anymore. Sins must be forgiven and Jesus did that when he died on the cross for our sins. Aili told Harold that all he had to do was to ask Jesus to forgive him of his sins. So Harold prayed and asked God to forgive him of his sins and come into his heart and life and he received Jesus as his Savior and Lord. Aili had a Billy Graham daily devotional that she read every night. For the Jan. 22 devotional, she wrote "My sweetheart prayed the sinner's prayer on 1/22/04. Praise, Praise be to God." We saw changes in Harold's life that indicated his decision to follow Jesus was very real. The Lord chose to raise Harold up and he was able to get rid of his Prostate Cancer. Harold loved to read his large print Bible after that and he read the Bible all the way through in less than a year. Aili and Harold had devotions and prayer together every morning and evening after his salvation. They ended each prayer session with the Lord's prayer, as given to us in Matthew 6:9-13.

Harold was preceded in death by his wife of 67 years, Aili. Harold had 3 sons, Jim (Jane), Sven (Margaret), David and a daughter, Janet. Harold had 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

Anonymous Poem
To the world you may be
just one person,
but to one person
you may be the world.

To Harold, Aili was his world. He wasn't able to continue life without her. He just missed her too much.

If you have a special memory of Harold, the family asks that you put it in the guest-book on the www.NewcomerDenver.com website.