Martin Pesonen

Martin F. Pesonen, 88, Bismarck, formerly of rural Wing, died July 28, 2006, at a Dickinson care center. Martin's cremains will be interred in Fairview Cemetery in Bismarck in a private service. In lieu of flowers, the family prefers memorials to the Baptist Home in Bismarck. Martin Frederick Pesonen, the eldest son of Walter and Lydia Eskelinen Pesonen, was born on the family farm near Wing, on September 13, 1917. He graduated from Wing High School. He lived and worked on the family farm until the death of his parents in the middle 1960s. He moved to Bismarck at that time and married a childhood neighbor, the widowed Dorothea Josephson Senzek on August 21, 1967. He also began working in the plant of Kirshman Manufacturing. He continued working there through mergers with Melroe Corporation and Clark Equipment Company from which he retired as foreman of the paint line in 1982. A shy and private person, Martin was self-taught and knowledgeable in a variety of areas. As a young man, he did professional taxidermy and made 16 mm movies of family and local events. He was a photographer most of his adult life and specialized in photographing wild flowers. He was an avid reader as his having 70 years of continuous subscription to the National Geographic Magazine exemplifies. Proud of their shared Finnish heritage, Martin and Dorothea, before her death in 1997, attended several national Finn Fests. Martin translated, spoke, and read Finnish, including a weekly newspaper in that language, until the time of his death. He is survived by his brother, William Personen, a retired teacher in Oregon; his step-daughter, Carol Senzek Grande of Santa Monica, California; his step-son-in-law, David Solheim of Dickinson; his step-grandson, Benjamin Solheim of Seattle; and his step-granddaughter, Julia Solheim of New York City. Other survivors include his cousin, Irma Schlaback of Bismarck; two brothers-in-law, Owen Betty Josephson of Alexandria, Minnesota, and Dennis Judy Josephson of Brandon, Oregon; and his sister-in-law, Sharon Josephson Miller of Bismarck. Martin has over twenty nieces and nephews and a dozen grand-nieces and grand-nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents; his sister, Margaret Pihlaja; his wife, Dorothea; and his step-daughter, Joan Senzek Solheim.

Martin Pesonen

September 13, 1917 - July 28, 2006