Victor Osten Tributes

[Lynette]

WMSTR lifetime member, Victor Osten, passed away Tuesday evening, March 2, 2010 at the age of 95 years old. Victor took seriously ill about the 2nd week of February. Our sympathies to his children, Lyle and Virginia and to all his grandchildren (including Ilene, Andrew (Debby), Shelly(Matt), and his great-grandchildren, Elijah, Noah, Simon, and Murphy.)

If I remember correctly, while Victor was serving on the WMSTR Board of Directors, it was he who made the motion to move the dates of WMSTR annual show from October to Labor Day weekend.

Victor was a great active member for many, many years. You would always see him in his red van on the Hill at Rollag.

Lynette Briden

[Larry Elton]

The Hawley Golden Riders will remember him for fixing our old fridge on the hill for year, every fall before the show
and we give our thoughts to his Kids and Grandkids:sad:
Larry and Anne Elton

[40avery]

Prayers for all of Victor's family.

Victor was another elder Rollag statesman that always had time to chat with me when I saw him anywhere. I appreciated him.

Rick

[M Kerkvliet]

Heartfelt prayers sent for the Osten family. :praying:

Obituary (http://www.wmstrcommunityforum.com/showthread.php?p=7446)

[Brian K. Nelson]

Victor will be truly missed. It was always a pleasure to visit with Victor and Alma every year during the show and during the annual meetings. They always had a smile.
I will always remember Alma working in the concession stand on top of the hill. She always made the best "suicides" - she would mix a little bit of each flavor of pop into one glass. Sometimes I think she only made it for me..
Took me awhile but I found this picture of Victor and Alma standing in the Workers Eat shack line during the 2005 show.
Blessed be the memories...http://i151.photobucket.com/albums/s134/defsim/reunion078.jpg

[ICLIDA]

Victor was a big part of our family. One day after Victor had his stroke, he was in my dad’s shop in Pelican Rapids, when dad was rewiring an electric motor. Victor watched for a little while and then said in his thick accent “you know, I think I could do that”. Dad had Victor pull up a stool and he started working for Dillon Electric that day. Victor specialized in air conditioning and refrigeration work. When dad was explaining something to Victor and it was clear that it wasn’t sinking in, dad would say, let’s go have some coffee. During coffee Victor would all of a sudden say, “oh now I get it”.

Dad sent Victor to a class on soldering at one of the technical schools in the area to get some additional training on soldering for his refrigeration work. During the class the instructor had everyone solder some tubing together. Victor said the instructor walked around the class and then came back to him and lifted up his sample. Victor was all worried that he did something wrong when the instructor announced to the class that everyone needed to learn how to solder just like this. Victor was so relieved, and I think a little proud of the job he had done.

I was not in school yet when Victor went to work for dad so I was still at home at lunchtime. Most days Victor would come in the house and have his lunch with mom and I. I remember that he always had a little container of peaches or pears, which I am sure that Alma had packed for him. After lunch Victor would go over to our couch and take a short nap. Dad bought a 1963 GMC panel that Victor drove for years. My brother Jim, who is 11 years older the I am, drove that panel to high school for a few weeks before the shelves were installed in the back and it was loaded up for Victor to do his refrigeration work. Some of the older members at Rollag might remember the old brown and white GMC panel that Victor drove before he got his red van. This was about the time that farmers were switching from having milk cans to bulk tanks. Victor installed the refrigeration unit for hundreds of bulk tanks over the years.

In 1970 my dad moved to Minneapolis and Victor went to work for my uncle Don who ran Dillon’s Inc. Victor continued on as a refrigeration and air conditioning specialist for many years. There were many refrigeration units around the country that got “special” attention from Victor. He would stop in just to make sure that their cooler was operating properly, if you know what I mean.

I think the maddest I ever saw my uncle was when one of his customers came in and accused Victor of padding the bill. For everyone that knows Victor, he was the most honest person that you would ever meet. After my uncle “explained” to the customer that there is no way that Victor would ever try to take advantage of anyone, my aunt took her turn at the customer. As it turned out the customer had misread the bill and Victor had not done anything wrong. Dad still talks about all of the electric motors he missed out on selling because Victor always had his can of Marvel Mystery Oil with him. Victor would give the motor a good shot of oil and it would run just fine.

In the late 1970’s Victor was still driving the old GMC and it was starting to get a lot of miles on it. There was the occasional fire under the hood from the leaky sediment bowl, and the day the driver’s seat burned up, but it still kept going and going and going. Every year Don would ask Victor if he wanted a new work truck and Victor said, oh no, the panel is just fine. During Christmas vacation the winter of 1977, Victor mentioned that the transmission was getting a little loud on the panel, which now had about 350,000 miles on it. My cousin Kevin and I pulled the transmission out of the panel and pulled the side cover off to see what was wrong. There wasn’t anything left so we went to the junkyard and got a different transmission to install. A few days latter Victor stopped in the shop to see how we were doing on the panel. We told him it was ready and that the old transmission was real bad. He wanted to see the old transmission so we went to the back of the shop and lifted the side cover up so he could see. He looked inside, shook his head and said “Jimmy must have done that”. Jim had lived in Seattle for 10 years at this time and Victor had put about 325,000 miles on the panel since the last time Jim had driven it. When Victor finally gave in and let Don buy him a new van, Don gave Victor the old panel and I think he had it in one of the sheds on the farm until the sale just a year ago.

Victor was a true gentleman. He was always so happy to see you and always had a big hug for the girls. I will miss him, and Rollag will not be the same without him, but we are all so lucky that he was there for all those years.

Tom Dillon

[craig mattson]

I only met Victor a couple times but he was a great man. I remember, I think it was 2 years ago, I went with Lyle and Noah up to see Victor before they moved into the retirement home and what a character he was. My deepest simpathies and prayers go out to the Osten Family.

[Todd Hintz]

I enjoyed the photo and Tom's write up. Makes me sad I hadn't known Victor. We're praying for the family.

[RUSS J]

Very Sad to Hear we lost another Great one " Victor"
I Knew Victor from going to Rollag last 15 Plus years. I Usually seen him by his Row of tractors At Rollag. I remember helping him put in an Battery or two in his tractors, they were in the Old Red Van & don't forget the golf cart as well. Victor always had time to Talk on the Hill & I got an Smile & An North Dakota wave, My Wife Margie, Always got an Hug from Victor. I Too think that Rollag has lost a Great One. Victor some Day we will meet again & I'm sure You know a good Place in Heaven To " Go get a cup of Coffee"
Going to miss you on The Hill
Russ

[Neal Heminger]

Lynette is correct that Victor made the motion at a board meeting to have the show on Labor Day weekend. The story he relayed to me some years ago is that in the early years of the show, Rollag and the Dalton shows would trade off having their show on Labor Day weekend. He did not however relay the details or the reasoning behind his motion, other than something happened between the two shows and that the Rollag show from now on was going to be held on Labor Day weekend. One only has to look around the show grounds to see what a profound decision that was.

Another thing that I will always remember about Victor is that he always had a warm smile for any one he met. And you were almost certain to hear one of his favorite sayings with his thick Norwegian accent. Any time he heard something a little surprising he would always say “ Oh da heck” Very close to what I said at learning of his passing.