Bemidji man Donovan Hare remembered at First Baptist service

Donovan Hare, 97, of Bemidji and formerly of Grand Rapids, was remembered Monday at First Baptist Church in Bemidji, where a celebration of life was set for 11 a.m. and visitation began an hour before the service. The church is at 1555 Paul Bunyan Drive NW, giving family and friends a fixed place to gather in the city where Hare spent his final years.

Hare died Tuesday, July 7, 2026. His obituary said he was born July 25, 1928, and a matching memorial listing described him as having died peacefully, surrounded by the love of his family. Olson-Schwartz Funeral Home & Cremation Service in Bemidji also listed Hare among its recent obituaries, underscoring the local funeral-home ties behind the service arrangements.

The notice identified Bemidji as Hare’s home and Grand Rapids as the place he formerly lived, tying his final remembrance to two northern Minnesota communities that have long been linked by family, church, and local service networks. The brief obituary kept the focus on the memorial itself rather than a lengthy life story, a familiar approach in area death notices where the practical details matter most: where to go, when to arrive, and how to pay respects.

For Beltrami County readers, the service at First Baptist made those details plain. The church address, the 11 a.m. start, and the one-hour visitation window gave neighbors and longtime acquaintances a clear invitation to attend and mark Hare’s death with the kind of local remembrance that still centers many Bemidji-area families.