- Date Of Birth: March 8, 1943
- Date Of Death: January 24, 2020
- State: Minnesota
Rodney Adolph Sletten of Laporte, MN passed away peacefully at home on Friday, January 24, 2020. He was born March 8, 1943 to Adolph and Helen (Johnson) Sletten at home on their farm in Bemidji, the first of twins with his brother, Raymond.
He graduated from Bemidji High School in 1961 and married Pearl (Cotant) of Laporte on November 2, 1963. They celebrated 56 years of marriage and two sons, Tony and Greg, were born to this union.
The first six years of their marriage he worked at Northern Farm and Garden grinding feed for $1.35 an hour. He then got into the construction trade.
Rodney was a 50-year member of the Bricklayers Local Union #1 of Minneapolis, a member of First Lutheran Church in Bemidji, and has attended the Laporte Baptist (Bible) Church since moving to Laporte.
In the past, he was a member of the Laporte School Board for six years, on the Hubbard County A.S.C Board and has been a member of A.A. with 43 years of sobriety.
He was a master craftsman who worked on many commercial building projects, including ones at Bemidji State University, the Target Center in Minneapolis and other places around Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Colorado. He was the Union Business Agent for the bricklayers for about five years before his retirement. After retiring, he and Pearl spent winters in Texas and Arizona.
A self-taught master of split rock and field-stone fireplaces, building many in homes on area lakes, including one for Chip Lohmiller, who played football for the Minnesota Gophers and Washington Redskins.
He had farming in his blood and in 1975 bought some land in Laporte and built up his first farm; raising pigs, chickens and later getting milk cows. In 1986, he sold it and bought the “Cotant Family” farm, where he raised beef and put up 100 acres of hay each year. He continued working on construction projects too until his retirement.
Rodney enjoyed gardening and raising raspberries. His hobbies included golfing, playing pedal steel guitar at music jams, reading western books, jig saw puzzles, playing cards and watching the Gophers, Vikings and boxing on T.V.
Rodney is preceded in death by his parents and grandparents.
He is survived by his wife Pearl; two sons, Anthony (Ellen) of Holmen, WI and Gregory of Laporte; granddaughter, Alexandria (Angelina) Sletten of Fairbanks, AL; grandson, Sgt. Shane (Nichole) Sletten of Fort Bragg, NC; sister, Violet (Ray) Suther of Bemidji; brothers, twin Raymond (Nancy) of Zapata, TX and Lengby, MN and Russell (Marlene) of Minneapolis, aunts, nieces, nephews, cousins and many friends.
