Ernest "Ernie" Joseph Willenbring

Age 79 of Roseville Died December 17, 2015 Ernie was a charter member and a life-long volunteer at St. Odilia. He donated his time and talent to the Sharing Korner food shelf, girls' soccer and many civic and environmental causes. He was proud of his career in construction. Ernie was passionate about family, skiing and landscaping -- no one could prune like Ernie! Survived by his wife of 58 years, Maureen; children, Daniel (Kelly Jeanetta), James (Kelly Kirk), Sr. Karen; grandchildren, Erin (Jeff) Madison, Michael (Nicole), Bailey and Jacob; great-grandchildren, Gavin, Cooper and Jack; 8 siblings and 3 step-siblings. Preceded in death by son, Michael; parents, Roman and Marie; sister, Leora. Mass of Christian Burial 11AM Monday, Dec. 21 (visitation begins at 9:30AM) at ST ODILIA CATHOLIC CHURCH, 3495 N. Victoria, Shoreview. Interment Roselawn Cemetery. Memorials preferred to Susquehanna Rural Free Clinic (Sisters of Anawim Community). Eulogy/Remembrance for Ernie Willenbring Dec 21, 2015 By Jim, Karen, & Dan WillenbringIf our dad knew that anyone was going to talk about him in front of such a large group of people, he would've said, "Just say I was good guy who worked hard and let them get to lunch a bit sooner." Our dad was a modest man, much more worried about getting the work done then getting credit for doing it. Well, dad, you're just going to have to sit there and listen to us talk about you for a while. Lunch will come soon enough. Our father was a conservative in the truest sense of the word: he conserved what was valuable to him and to others. I'd be working with him on some project and the nails that we bent pulling out of wood, he'd hammer them straight and save them for his next project. Let's just say that we have a number of cans at the cabin filled with nails that are ready to be reused. It wasn't just nails that he conserved, but water, paper, electricity, and even heat. He prided himself on how long he could go into the fall until having to turn the furnace on. I think it was our next-door neighbor Jim Ivey or Bonnie who nicknamed our dad "Ecology Ernie," and that fit him to a T. One of the few things he did not conserve was his time. He gave that away like it was free to the people and places that meant the most to him. That time was as good as gold. Those people and places were his family and friends, his job, his church, and his community. Father Rask talked about a number of these groups and organizations already so I won't repeat those, but I do want to tell you a few stories that really illustrate who Ernie Willenbring was. A few years after he and his brothers built a big addition on the back of mom and dad's home, our dad made a swing for a deck on the back of the house. It wasn't a fancy swing but it was sturdy, comfortable and made to last. There is a picture of one on the remembrance card that my niece Bailey had done up for today. Since the first swing worked out so well, he start making more swings. We have one at the cabin, some of our mom and dad's neighbors in Roseville have one, our neighbors at the cabin have one, and he'd make and donate one or two for Saint Odilia here to auction off each year at the fall festival. My brother has one, I have one, even my sister in Pennsylvania has one. He hauled the materials out with him on one of the many trips that he and my mom made to visit our sister Karen at the Young People Who Care mission in the Pennsylvania Appalachians and he built it out there. I even proposed to my wife on the one that we have at the cabin. To us, those swings symbolize Ernie in so many ways, but two specifically: they are strong and they bring people together (you know, someone swinging alone is almost always joined by someone else). Let me first talk about our father's strength: Ernie's life was about building strong things that last. Most of his career he was a professional estimator and project manager for Bolander. He helped build what we all take for granted: the ground underneath our buildings and roads. That is so much like his personality: working on the part of the building or road that no one sees but is so foundational for the part above it that gets all the attention. He was proud of his work. When traveling around the Twin Cities or even outside the cities we would usually drive by or on something that he helped bid on or build. Some friends of our family even call a road off of Highway 36 in Maplewood "Ernie's" road. Ernie was also physically strong. Like many of his carpenter brothers he could hammer a nail in with one maybe two at the most hits with his hammer. As you probably saw in some of the pictures he was an avid skier. He did a brief stint in the army when he was young, and he did his training in Colorado and that's where he started skiing. He was not big into playing sports but he did love to ski. He actually skied all way up through last March when he was 79 years old when he joined my wife Kelly and my son Jacob and I on a trip to Steamboat Springs in Colorado. Our father was also strong in his faith and in his relationship with our mom. His was a quiet devotion, but he loved our mom more than anything and lived out his faith not just here in this church, but more importantly outside these walls in the way he lived his life. If you define fulfillment in life as living in alignment with your values, Ernie was the living embodiment of that definition. He did not have to tell you his values, you saw in him that you have to work hard for the most important things in life, which are your family, your job, your faith, and your community. Secondly, let me talk about how our dad brought people together. While our dad was fine being alone, so much of what Ernie did drew in people to do good together. You might think that with everything he was involved with we might not have seen much of him when we were growing up. Actually, the opposite was true: One example: he coached my twin sister Karen's soccer team when we were young, supporting girls athletics very early on in the 1970s. He even asked me to help, though it didn't take much convincing for me, a teenage boy, to spend time with about 20 girls my own age. He didn't know much about soccer when he started but he learned and he was good with kids, and he was so supportive of those girls; he never yelled at them like other coaches did to their teams. He helped those girls not only learn how to play soccer, but more importantly how to live their life with honesty, hard work, and have a lot of fun while doing it. So, instead of watching our sister play soccer, he coached her and her friends for 8 or 9 years. This was a great example of one of his values: which was almost anything worth doing was worth helping others to do. There are many more examples: Instead of sending his kids off to go skiing in the winter, he organized an informal ski club when Dan was in junior high here at St. Odilia, taking him and his friends skiing almost every week. Instead of just attending church here every week, he was an usher and member of the men's club for many years (all of the men's club members in the red shirts - thank you for honoring Ernie today). Instead of just sending us to school here at St. Odilia, he served on the school board and many other committees. Instead of dropping his kids off at the beach in the summer, he built his own wooden speedboat and taught us all how to waterski and sail and instilled in all of us a love of being on the water. If we have a vice or indulgence in our family, boats are probably it: we have 10 different boats across canoes, kayaks, paddleboats, sailboats, speedboats, fishing boats, and even a cabin cruiser. If you have to inherit a vice from your father, this one isn't too bad in a state like ours. Instead of just enjoying our parks, Ernie actually helped develop the strategy and plan in the 1960s that created so many of the open, public spaces we have in Ramsey County and he served on the Roseville Parks board for many years. They even granted him a permanent "license" to prune any tree or bush that needed it on any city property. Instead of just donating food each week at church, he drove that donation regularly to the Sharing Korner food shelf, served on their board of directors, was their volunteer general contractor when they moved locations, and was a regular helper for just about any task that needed to be done. There are so many more examples, but I will share one last one, and that was the work he did with the St. Odilia prayer garden & cemetery. Lynne Schriver-Sheedy said Ernie was her first volunteer when the project started 7 years ago. He used his deep construction and project management expertise to help that project come to a beautiful completion just last year. He told Lynne recently that he was entrusting her to water the new trees that he planted in the cemetery. I don't think any of you know that this parish is surrounded by trees that our father planted. Not just the new trees, but forty five years ago he planted the four trees that stand tall and strong just outside the walls of this church and school over on the north side of the building. So, Dad, I think we clearly established that you were a good man, and you really worked hard. We may not have the gift of your physical presence after today, but we are surrounded by your life's work as we drive on our roads, as we eat when we cannot afford to feed ourselves, as we enjoy the shade when we walk in our parks, to our church, and in our cemetery, and as we sit with each other and swing on our swings. We love you, Ernie. Rest in peace, and as my Uncle Sonny said, in heaven after you give a big hug to our brother Mike, your mom and dad and other friends, go over to St. Joseph's tool shed and he'll have a set of clippers ready for you.

Tributes

Ernest "Ernie" Joseph Willenbring

March 16, 1936 - December 17, 2015

Tributes

Ernest "Ernie" Joseph Willenbring

March 16, 1936 - December 17, 2015

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