AUSTIN — The funeral for Paul A. Grosland will be at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Austin, with the Rev. Ron Barnett officiating. Interment will be in Sunset Rest Cemetery in Northwood, Iowa.
Paul Allen Grosland, 67, of Austin, died Wednesday (Oct. 29, 2008) at Saint Marys Hospital in Rochester.
He was born April 10, 1941, in Northwood, attended 13 years of school on the same block in Northwood, and graduated in 1959. He attended Mason City (Iowa) Junior College before moving to Minnesota, where he attended Mankato State College and served three years in the National Guard. On Aug. 26, 1961, he married Ruth Hempen at First Lutheran Church in Northwood.
In 1963 Mr. Grosland earned a degree in elementary education from the State College of Iowa. He taught sixth grade for nine years in Fertile, Mason City and Albert Lea, then earned a master’s degree in audio visual library from Mankato State College in 1971. He was a school librarian in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and Northwood, and at the Area Education Agency in Ottumwa, Iowa. Moving back to Minnesota, he was the district media director for Austin Public Schools for 23 years, retiring in 1999. In retirement he worked in aircraft cleaning at Hormel Foods Corp. for seven years. Mr. Grosland enjoyed photography, his iMac computer, spending time with his family, traveling, and taking day trips. He and his wife took an Alaskan cruise and had also visited Norway.
Survivors include his wife; a son, Dan of Inver Grove Heights, Minn.; a daughter, Michelle (David) Phillips of Faribault, Minn.; a granddaughter, Julia; two brothers, Virgil of Plymouth, Minn., and David (Diane) of Fort Dodge; and three sisters, Mavis (Richard) Nelson of Albert Lea, Kerma Hammer of North Carolina and JoAnn (James) Villa of Lake Mills, Iowa. He was preceded in death by his parents, Oscar and Inah (Hanson) Grosland; and a brother, LaVon.
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Visitation will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. today at Worlein Funeral Home in Austin, and an hour before the service Saturday at the church.
