Obituary of Reynold John Rehwaldt

Reynold John "Red" Rehwaldt died on August 23, 2018, at the age of 88. A devoted husband and father, he was born in Yankton, SD, where his father was a Lutheran minister. He graduated from Granite Falls High School in Minnesota in 1948. During his senior year, Red led the basketball team to the school's first ever state tournament, where they finished as Consolation Champion. Red graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1952, where he studied history and social studies. Under the tutelage of coach Gus Young, he was named All Conference in his junior and senior years, and was awarded the Sponberg and Myrum Key trophies for outstanding academic performance. A proud Gustie, he served as president of the Gustavus Alumni Association in 1978. He was elected to the Gustavus Athletic Hall of Fame in 1980 and was named a distinguished alumnus in 1986. Red is still remembered for his dynamic basketball style. Red enlisted in the Navy and served 18 months as a liaison officer in Korea, before being stationed in Newport, RI. He married his college sweetheart, Mary Edlund, in 1954, and they were together 64 years. He received an MA in education from Indiana University in 1957. In addition to working and carrying on marathon basketball games with his kids, Red earned a PhD in educational administration from the University of Minnesota in 1973. He started his professional career in 1956 as a history teacher and basketball coach at Faribault High. He began an administrative path five years later, moving through the ranks of assistant principal at John Marshall High School in Rochester to principal at Albert Lea and Kellogg High Schools. He was Director of Secondary Schools and Assistant Superintendent in Roseville before being named Superintendant of District 77, Mankato, and Superintendent of District 196, Rosemount-Apple Valley, the state's second largest district, in 1986. He retired in 1993. After "retirement" Red served as a consultant to the architectural firm, Hammel Green and Abrahamson, and the project, Shared Decisions Minnesota. He help out as interim superintendent in Osseo and, returning to his professional roots, Faribault. Red was a voracious reader of both fiction and nonfiction, which he carefully catalogued in case anyone needed a fifteen page, single spaced reading list. He was an avid outdoorsman, having backpacked numerous times in the Rocky and Sierra Mountains, and canoed in the Boundary Waters and Quetico more than thirty times with family and friends. He enjoyed spending time with Mary at their home in New York's Catskill Mountains, where they were often joined by Lise and Tim, who lived two hours away, in New York City. They trekked in Nepal and Patagonia, safaried in the Serengeti, toured throughout Europe and England, travelled to Australia and New Zealand, and celebrated their fiftieth anniversary with all of their kids and their families and Mary's relatives in Norway, in 2004And so much more. Red played competitive tennis and canoed until he was 85 years old. Preceded in death by parents, Traugott and Renata; brothers, Thomas and Donovan; sister, Virginia Putnam. Survived by wife, Mary; daughter, Lise; son, Bruce (Kathy); son, Tim; granddaughter, Molly Ford (Jake); great-granddaughters, Freyja and Jaina Ford; grandson, Tom Rehwaldt, and numerous in-laws, nieces and nephews. Visitation at 10:00 a.m., service at 11:00 a.m., reception at 12:00 p.m., on Saturday, September 29, at Central Lutheran Church, Mpls. Memorials preferred to: Central Lutheran Building Fund; Men's Basketball Program, Gustavus Adolphus College, 800 W. College Ave., St. Peter, MN 56082