Obituary of Gary Eugene Nelson

Gary Eugene Nelson, 67, died Friday, July 3, 2015, in St. Luke's hospice in Duluth following a long battle with cancer. Gary was born in 1948, in Peoria, Ill., the son of Henry and Grace (Munstedt) Nelson and raised in Dallas, Texas, except for a period of about five years when his father moved the family to Kansas City. Gary met Mary at Shawnee Mission West High School in Kansas and asked her to marry him in 1965, the summer before his family moved back to Dallas. They were married in May of 1969 in Arlington, Texas, and spent their honeymoon at Six Flags Over Texas. Gary graduated with highest honors from the University of Texas at Arlington in May of 1971 with a major in electrical engineering and began his career at Ling Temco Vaught (LTV) working in quality control for a manufacturer of military airplanes. He went on to design pacemakers and implantable hearing aids, working in management, design research or as a design engineer for Mostek, Texas Instruments, Medtronic, KEI, Guidant Incorporated, St. Croix Medical (Envoy) and Honeywell. He has several patents to his name for the integrated circuits he designed while at Medtronic, where he worked for 15 years. It was a stroke in 2008 which forced him to retire after three decades of supporting his family, doing work he enjoyed. He loved music and spent hours transferring his and his father's old LPs to CD. He was a Christian and a devoted student of the Bible. He loved the North Shore and spent many an afternoon alongside Lake Superior with his wife picnicking, talking, working crossword puzzles and watching the waves. He is remembered as a kind and gentle man and an excellent listener. He was always there for his family in every way. He leaves his wife of 47 years, Mary (Nelson) Nelson; sons Jonathan and Joseph and their wives, Jennifer and Michelle; and grandchildren Megan, Jaxon and Henry. The Nelson family would like to thank Dr. Steven Long with Mt. Royal Medical, Dr. Perlov and Dr. Silva-Benedict with St. Luke's oncology, along with the Cancer Treatment Center and Hospice at St. Luke's for taking such good care of Gary. No service was held.