ROCHESTER — A memorial service for Raymond H. Island will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at United Redeemer Lutheran Church in Zumbrota.
Mr. Island, 82, of Rochester, died Monday (April 28, 2008) at Seasons Hospice.
He was born April 1, 1926, in Wanamingo. He attended school in Wanamingo until his senior year of high school, when his family moved to Zumbrota. He graduated in 1944. He then joined the Navy and served for 20 years, retiring in 1964.
In 1947, he married Janelle Hegre. They were later divorced. He married Mary Jane Kraut on Jan. 31, 1979; she survives.
While in the Navy, Mr. Island was also an insurance salesman for Northwest Life. Following his retirement from the service, he went through alcoholism treatment several times. He eventually became sober, crediting his sobriety to a spiritual awakening, and spent many years working as a counselor in the alcoholism treatment field. He began at the Zumbro Valley Mental Health Center and in 1972 joined Dr. Robert Morse at the start of the Mayo Clinic Alcohol and Drug Dependency Unit at Methodist Hospital. He retired from Mayo in 1988.
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In retirement, Mr. Island and his wife, Mary Jane, moved to Lenoir, N.C., where they ran the Caldwell Halfway House. They returned to Rochester in 1996.
He is survived by his second wife; three daughters, Rozie Born of Zumbrota, Randi (David) Campbell of Eyota and Robyn Meyer of Rochester; and a sister, Bernice (Joel) Ree of Tucson, Ariz. Other survivors include five stepchildren, Billee Kraut (Butch Johnson) of Minnetonka, Minn., Jill (Rick) House of Iowa City, Iowa, Ken (Janell) Kraut and Bruce (Jane) Kraut, both of Spring Valley, and Doug (Joyce) Kraut of St. Charles; four grandchildren; nine stepgrandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and nine stepgreat-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by two brothers.
