Phyllis Eileen Omlid

Phyllis Eileen Mickelson Omlid, 92, died November 1, 2010, at Medcenter One St. Vincent?s Care Center in Bismarck. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m., Saturday, November 20th, at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and Church, Bismarck, with Rev. Lyn Burton officiating. Burial will be held at a later date at West Walle Lutheran Church, rural Grand Forks. Phyllis was born on October 23, 1918, in Minneapolis, MN, the daughter of Irving and Mathilda Mencke Mickelson. She grew up in St. Paul, MN, graduating from Mechanic Arts High School. With the help of her aunt, Marie Mickelson Hargrove, Phyllis attended Long Beach Junior College in California, before graduating cum laude from the University of Minnesota in 1939. After several years of work in the field of social welfare, she returned to school at the University of Chicago, graduating from its School of Social Service Administration with a master?s degree in psychiatric social work. On June 27, 1953, Phyllis married Ole T. Omlid in St. Paul. They had one daughter, Lisa. They lived variously in Willmar, MN; Mt. Pleasant, MI; Grand Forks; and Bismarck. Phyllis had a long and distinguished career in public service. Prior to her marriage, she was a social worker with the Ramsey County Welfare Board, working with the blind and visually handicapped as well as the developmentally disabled. Following that, she worked as a supervisor with the Minnesota Public Welfare Department. During that time, she was a Fellow of the American Association of Mental Deficiency, serving as book review editor for the Association?s journal and as editor of its regional newsletter. From 1969 until her retirement in 1991, Phyllis was employed as a psychiatric social worker by the Memorial Mental Health and Retardation Center, Mandan, which later became West Central Human Service Center, Bismarck. During this time she played a large part in establishing a professional licensure system for social workers in the state of North Dakota. Always active, after her retirement Phyllis was a Retired Seniors Volunteer Program RSVP volunteer for the Big Brother/Big Sister program and the ND Volunteer Caregiver Bank, in addition to serving on behalf of the mentally ill on the Advisory Council for the ND Protection and Advocacy Project. In 1994 Phyllis was honored as ND Social Worker of the Year by the ND Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. A member of the American Association of University Women AAUW, Phyllis served two terms as Bismarck chapter president, from 1994 to 1998. She was also a longtime member of the American Association of Retired Persons AARP and Golden K Kiwanis, serving one term as president of Golden K. Phyllis was well known for her sharp wit and entertaining sense of humor, which stayed with her to the end. She was an extraordinarily elegant woman with a highly developed esthetic sense, which expressed itself both in her personal style as well as in the world she created around her. Intellectually sophisticated, she was nonetheless very down to earth. Socially adept and extremely outgoing from childhood, she always paid compliments to or had kind words for others. Reading was Phyllis? absolute passion, and she pursued it widely, reading everything from scholarly journals to children?s books. She was also quite physically active, walking almost every day. In 1998, at the age of 80, she was named Fit Person of the Month at the Women?s Health Center. Social work was the perfect profession for Phyllis because she truly cared about helping others and making the world a better place. She also cared about animals and deeply lover her cats?Boris, who wandered in one day off the street and made his home with Ole and Phyllis, and Taylor, whom Phyllis adopted from a local shelter. Phyllis is survived by her daughter, Lisa, of Bismarck; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Ardell and Mary Ann Omlid; sister-in-law, Orpha Jane Omlid; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Roger and Chris Hjelle; and five nephews and their spouses. She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Ole; her brother, Lloyd Mickelson; her brother-in-law, William Omlid; and her sister-in-law, Mary Anne Omlid Hjelle. Memorials can be made to AAUW, the Central Dakota Humane Society, or the children?s library project of the Bismarck Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

Phyllis Eileen Omlid

October 23, 1918 - November 1, 2010