Gene Sandwick

Gene Sandwick, 72, Bismarck, died February 11, 2006, at a Bismarck hospital after a lengthy illness. Funeral services will be held at 11:30 a.m. Friday at the Church of Corpus Christi, Bismarck, with the Rev. Paul Becker officiating. Burial will be at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery, Mandan with military rites provided by VFW Post 1326. Visitation will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.Thursday at Eastgate Funeral Service where a prayer service will be held at 7:00 p.m. that evening. Visitation will continue for one hour prior to the service at the church. Gene was born February 7, 1934, at Linton, ND, to Lawrence and Hilda Vanderberg Sandwick. He attended rural schools until his family moved to Linton. He joined the Navy in 1951 during the Korean War. After his discharge in January of 1955, he returned to North Dakota. On November 5 of that year he married Joanne Hurkes at St. Paul's Catholic Church in Hazelton, ND. By January of 1956, they had moved to Los Angeles, CA, where Gene went to work in the purchasing department of General Petroleum Corporation and attended school at East Los Angeles Junior College. While they were in Los Angeles, their oldest son Larry was born. In the summer of 1958, they returned to North Dakota and in the fall of 1958 they moved to Moorhead, Minnesota, where Gene became a full time student at Minnesota State University and their second child, Kathy, was born. In the spring of 1961, Gene graduated and was appointed by the North Dakota Governor, Bill Guy, to set up a centralized purchasing department for the state of North Dakota. While he was working for the state he was president of the North Dakota Public Employee's Association and was instrumental in helping to set up the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement Association system; at one time he was a board member. In the early sixties his third and fourth children, Jerry and Pam were born in Bismarck. In 1970, he was appointed director for the Burleigh County Housing and Urban Renewal. After being involved in downtown urban renewal projects, the building of hundreds of units of low-income houses, and the Crescent Manor Senior Citizen high-rise, urban renewal and housing became two separate programs. Gene chose to work with the Housing Authority he was the founder and president of North Dakota Elderly Legal Assistance, vice president of Legal Services of North Dakota and helped to build the Senior Citizen's Center. In 1987, Gene and Joanne moved to Denver where Gene took a job as a housing management specialist with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. He went on to work with Indian housing programs that were having financial difficulties. He worked in Fort Thompson, South Dakota and Lame Deer, Montana. In 1995, he semi-retired and they returned to Bismarck where he held a variety of positions. At one point he became a chairman of the Burleigh County Council on Aging but resigned due to health problems. Gene had many interests but his greatest love was the Missouri River. From the time he moved to Bismarck and purchased his boat the summer months were spent on the river. There were many weekend family outings on sandbars and many boat trips from Bismarck to Mobridge, South Dakota, and Bismarck to Stanton, North Dakota. One of the most memorable times was a roundtrip excursion of Yellowtail Dam in Montana. Among his other interests was traveling with or without the motor home and enjoying trips to points of interest around North Dakota. He enjoyed conversing about politics, loved the history of World War II, enjoyed his friends and deeply loved spending time with his family. Gene will be deeply missed and always remembered with love by his wife of 50 years, Joanne; his four children, Larry, Jerry, Pam Sandwick, and Kathy Gross; his six grandchildren, Chris, Dustin, Lacy, Michael, Krystle and Will; his two great-granddaughters; his sisters; his sisters-in-law; and his brothers-in-law. He was preceded in death by his parents and four brothers, Louis, Chester, Harry and Richard Sandwick.

Gene Sandwick

February 7, 1934 - February 11, 2006