Bemidji remembers Richard Christiansen, Army veteran and family man

Richard Christiansen, an 88-year-old Bemidji native whose life was rooted in the Carr Lake dairy farm, Grace Lake and Army service in Korea, died Saturday, July 4, at Sanford Center in Bemidji.

Christiansen was born Jan. 5, 1938, in Bemidji to Adolph and Tilda Christiansen and grew up as the youngest of nine siblings on the family dairy farm in the Carr Lake community. He attended Carr Lake School through eighth grade and graduated from Bemidji High School in 1956, carrying the mark of a rural upbringing that kept him tied to the land and to the routines of north-central Minnesota.

He served in the U.S. Army and spent time in Korea with the 17th Transportation Battalion, a unit tied to the Army Transportation Corps and its mission of moving men and equipment quickly. He was honorably discharged in 1967, closing a chapter that took him far from Beltrami County before bringing him back home.

Back in Bemidji, Christiansen married Janice Schauls on July 11, 1964. The couple raised four children on Grace Lake, where fishing, swimming and lake life shaped the family’s daily rhythm. Winters were just as distinctly northern Minnesota: the obituary recalls Arctic Cat snowmobiles and early morning drives to hockey practices and games, the kind of schedule that connected him to both family life and the long local tradition of youth hockey.

Christiansen is remembered for fishing, hunting, watching the Minnesota Wild and spending time with his five grandchildren, Karissa, Ethan, Tyler, Brielle and Kaliyah. He is survived by Janice, his children Jeff, Joseph, Cory and Chad, and his grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents and six brothers and three sisters.

Grace Lake, where the Christiansens raised their children, is a familiar part of the local landscape in Hubbard and Beltrami counties. The Grace Lake Watershed Improvement Association says it has worked to protect the lake since 1954 and describes it as 877 surface acres with a maximum depth of 42 feet. Christiansen’s life, like that lake country, was built from the same enduring pieces of Bemidji life: family farms, military service, and winters measured by hockey rinks, snowmobiles and the next trip out on the ice.