Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913

Robert Milferd Rorvig

Robert Milferd Rorvig, age 100, of Glasgow, died on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2014, at the Valley View Nursing Home in Glasgow.

He was born in Minnesota on his grandparents' farm on Jan. 2, 1914, to Nels and Minnie Rorvig. He lived in the Litchville area of North Dakota until he was 2 years old when he and his family moved to a homestead about 40 miles north of Frazer in Montana. They came by train with livestock and some household and farm machinery in November of 1916. Nels owned a threshing machine and had to finish threshing before they could move. It was a nice fall, so they got some buildings built, but it was a long cold winter. The family consisted of Oscar, 5, Robert, 2, and Martha, 6 months. Robert had two more brothers, Gordon, born in 1920, and Richard, born in 1927.

He was raised on the farm and went to grade school at the local country school which was a mile and a half away and graduated in 1928. He and his sister, Martha, went to high school in Opheim and graduated in 1932. He started college in the fall of 1934 and graduated with a degree in agricultural economics in 1939. He worked his way through college, which was during the worst of the big Depression. That fall he started working for the Montana Extension Service. He worked as an assistant county agent until he went into military service. He was discharged in 1946.

While he was working in Culbertson he met Eunice Shipstead, who was teaching school there. They were married just after Pearl Harbor on Dec. 20, 1941.

After his discharge from the Air Force, he was county extension agent in Valley County for a year. In the spring of 1947, he started farming until he sold the farm to his sons, Ronald and Glenn, in 1974. While farming he served on many boards and committees. Among them, he taught veterans for four years, County ASC Committee for 10 years, and School Board, etc.

After selling the farm, he and Eunice did a lot of traveling, both in the United States and around the world. They owned a home in Mesa, Ariz., and a house on Poverty Ridge at Fort Peck. They enjoyed the southern winters and the northern summers.

Survivors include two sons, Ronald Rorvig and Glenn Rorvig; a sister, Martha Halverson; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

Funeral services were held Monday, Dec. 1, at 1 p.m. at the First Lutheran Church in Glasgow, followed by interment in the Nashua Cemetery in Nashua.

Bell Mortuary of Glasgow was in charge of arrangements.

 

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