Roger Bruce Grau, 82, passed away peacefully on June 25, 2016 after bravely battling cancer. His multifaceted life and yearly travels brought him countless joys. Roger’s funeral service will be at 2 p.m., Saturday, July 2, 2016 at Redeemer Lutheran Church, Dickinson, with Rev. Michael Wolters officiating. Interment will take place at the McKinney Cemetery, near Tolley. Visitation will be on Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the church and will continue on Saturday from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., at the church. There will be a prayer service at 7 p.m., Friday at the church.
Roger, son of Ruth and George Grau, was born on February 18, 1934 in Walhalla. He worked on farms and in his dad’s gas station until heading to North Dakota State University, where he met the love of his life, Glee Atwood. They were married in Tolley on June 19, 1955.
The late 1950s was an exciting time for aerospace engineers. The space race was heating up and Roger’s first job took the couple to Denver where he worked on the Titan missile program at Martin Marietta.
In the mid-1960s Roger accepted an engineering position with the newly formed surgical laboratory at Colorado State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine. Applying his expertise in instrumentation and electronics, Roger helped develop heart and blood measure monitoring equipment for animals. His work was also later used during surgeries at Poudre Valley Hospital, and in studies of altitude sickness of animals and humans.
By 1975, Roger was ready for an entirely new challenge. On a leap of faith, he left the high-tech world and bought a Coast-to-Coast hardware store in Dickinson. His three daughters may tell you he did this so they could have jobs all through junior high and high school, but in reality, he wanted to raise his girls in a smaller town, be his own boss, and live closer to extended family.
Ten years later, another career change beckoned, one befitting Roger’s well-honed fix-it skills. Following a year of gunsmithing school in Trinidad, Colorado, he set up shop in a tiny white house near downtown Dickinson and hung out his humble shingle. His natural talents and meticulous nature quickly cemented his reputation and soon collectors from far beyond the borders of North Dakota came knocking on his door. Even after retiring from this twenty-year career, Roger was often stopped and asked if he could do just one more gun.
Roger’s love of travel would often find him plotting the next family vacation in his trusty motorhome. The family’s two road trips to Alaska were most memorable, as was Roger’s personal challenge to see how many miles he could go before running out of gas (though not, thankfully, on the Alcan Highway).
Roger will be long remembered for his steadfast faith in God, the love he shared with everyone he met, and his ever-ready smile and optimism. Right up to his final day, he gave thanks for Glee, his wife of 61 years; his three daughters and their husbands, Angela and Hank Willenbring of Perham, Minn.; LaVonne and Rex Ewing of Masonville, Colo.; Candace and Paul Harron of Bismarck; his eight very special grandchildren; and his brother David Grau of Walhalla. And he thanked God for every friend and relative who so richly blessed his life.
In lieu of flowers, the family prefers memorials to the donors choice.
