Leo Heitzman

Leo Heitzman, 79, Bismarck, died October 14, 2007, at a Bismarck Care Center, Bismarck. Services will be held at 2:00 pm on Friday at Seventh Day Adventist Church, Bismarck, with Pastor Darrel Lindensmith officiating. Burial will be in Sunset Memorial Gardens, Bismarck. Visitation will be held from 12:00 noon until 9:00 pm Thursday at Eastgate Funeral Service, Bismarck, and continue one hour prior to services at the church. Leo Heitzman was born on December 2, 1927, on a farmstead south of Denhoff, ND, the son of August and Amelia Vietz Heitzman. The family moved to Oregon and Idaho, settling in Montana in 1936, where they raised sugar beets southwest of Hardin, MT. In 1938 they moved south of Hardin in the vicinity of Custer Battlefield. Leo attended school in Hardin, MT, through the eighth grade. In 1942, the family moved further south to Wyola, MT, where they raised mostly grain, hay, and cows. Fishing in the clear waters of the Little Horn River introduced Leo to a lifelong love of fishing. Leo completed his high school education by correspondence during the years in Wyola, receiving his diploma in 1946. In 1946 the family moved to Lodi, CA. It was there that Leo began his first ?off the farm? job working for Super Mold of Lodi, producing the molds for re-capping tires. Later, the family moved back to Hardin, MT, and purchased a small farm north of Hardin on the Big Horn River. Leo went to work for the Soil Conservation Service as a Surveyor and continued there until his induction into the US Army in 1951. After his basic training in southern CA, he was sent to Korea as an engineer in a combat unit. He received combat injuries while there and was plagued by them for the rest of his life. After returning to Montana, he went to college at Rocky Mountain College in Billings and finished at Montana State College in Bozeman. Following college graduation, he moved to North Dakota and worked at the Garrison Dam project in Riverdale. In 1959 after the major earthquakes in Yellowstone Park and the surrounding area he was called to help build a waterway releasing the waters of the Madison River from a huge slide that had blocked the river. This was done in haste as it was feared the lake would wash out and cause major flooding in the valley north of Ennis, MT. Leo always commented how strange it felt to be working on top of the 17 people the slide had buried, and never were recovered. In his later trips to the area, he never failed to stop there. Leo married Della Seidel on November 4, 1960, in Bismarck. Following their marriage they resided in Riverdale until 1966 when they then moved to Bismarck. In 1988 Leo retired from the Office of Engineering as director of the Bureau of Reclamation. Leo was a member of the Bismarck VFW and the Mandan Community Adventist Church; he loved to travel, hunt, and fish and especially enjoyed visiting Medora. In Leo's later years, he spoke often of all his close relatives and friends in the area. Leo is survived by two brothers, Harry of Hardin, MT, and Floyd of Missoula, MT; one sister, Violet Risewig of Lodi, CA; and several nieces and nephews. Leo was preceded in death by his wife; his parents; two sisters; and one brother.

Leo Heitzman

December 2, 1927 - October 14, 2007