His funeral is Friday, June 26, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. at the First Lutheran Church, Williston. The Rev. Martin Mock is officiating and interment follows in the Riverview Cemetery, Williston.
Elmer Boyd Skogen was born Aug. 15, 1918, in Scobey, Mont. His parents were Anna (Hoff) and Manick Skogen.
He was raised on a farm near Peerless, Mont., with his sister, Violet, and brother, Vernon. He graduated from Peerless High School in 1935 and began work for the ASC office in Scobey, the first of many careers in his lifetime.
Because of the depression, Elmer and his family moved to Fertile, Minn., where he worked at a newspaper. The family then moved to Hillsboro, where Elmer worked in a dry cleaning shop. In 1939, he joined the Civilian Conservation Corps and was assigned to Custer, S.D., where he was a cook’s assistant and cut hair to earn extra money. After discharge, he returned to Hillsboro and began his career as a lumberman.
He met and married Doris Solberg in Hillsboro in July 1940. They moved to Garrison, where Elmer worked in a lumberyard.
Elmer and Doris took over the Solberg farm west of Williston and farmed there until he entered the Army in 1945. He served as a medic in Korea.
After his discharge in 1947, he returned to Williston to work at the Farmers Union Lumber Yard. He was promoted to manager and remained in that position until his retirement in 1970. He was named “Outstanding Retailer” by the North Dakota Retail Lumbermen’s Association in 1970.Â
After retiring from the lumberyard and following the death of Doris in 1971, he worked as a training officer for the State Highway Department in Williston and Bismarck. He returned to Williston, where he opened a wholesale lumber business that was quickly bought out by the Minot Builders.
He worked as a salesman for Minot Builders until he returned to the Farmers Union Lumber as an estimator and salesman until his (second) retirement in 1984. He married Emma Askvig Fredrickson in 1978.
He was a member of the First Lutheran Church and in recent years organized the ticket table for the annual Lutefisk dinner. He was also a member of the Elks and Moose clubs and the American Legion.
He was active in many organizations in Williston, including the Cancer Support Group. He was president of the Williston United Way for two years, district chairman of the Boy Scouts, president of the Williston Kiwanis Club and a member of the advisory board for the carpentry class at UND-Williston.
He also served on the board of directors for the Williston Cooperative Credit Union. He was a charter member of the Fort Buford Sixth Infantry Regiment. He particularly enjoyed his time with his Thursday lunch gang.
 Elmer was a good man, an outstanding father and grandfather and a loyal friend. If someone needed help, he was there. If someone needed a hug, he offered.
He loved to fish and hunt, was a talented worker with wood, a gardener, an avid reader and a good story teller. He loved animals and was an accomplished horseman from a very young age.
He shared those loves with friends and relatives and we are all the better for having known him. He was one of those rare individuals who took the time to appreciate love and life and he shared that appreciation with those he loved and liked. He and Doris built a log cabin on Lake Sakakawea that served as a refuge for family and friends for many years.
 Elmer was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Doris; his second wife, Emma; his son, Larry Alan; his granddaughter, Lisa (Babb) Gross; and his sisters-in-law, Dorothy Ludwig Skogen and Edith Solberg Girard.
He is survived by his daughters and sons-in law, Gail and Gianni Migliorini of Milan, Italy, and Valorie and James Babb of Minot; his sister, Violet, of Hillsboro; his brother, Vernon, of Brainerd, Minn.; two grandsons, Larry Andre of San Diego, Calif., and Michael Andre of Tampa, Fla.; and his grandson-in-law, Brian Gross, of Nebraska City, Neb.
He is also survived by five nephews, Richard, David, Paul and Mark Skogen and Kevin Girard; and two nieces, Nancy (Skogen) Sweet and Jenifer (Girard) Olson and their families.
Memorials may be sent to the LAM Foundation, 4015 Executive Park Drive, Suite 320, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45241, www.thelamfoundation.org (LAM is the disease that took his granddaughter’s life) or to the Mercy Cancer Support Group, 410 E. Hillcourt, Williston, N.D., 58801.
 Friends may visit the Everson Funeral Home Web site at www.eversonfh.com to share thoughts and remembrances of Elmer.
Friends may call at the Everson Funeral Home, Williston on Thursday from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m. and at the church on Friday for the hour preceding the funeral.
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