Obituary

Beverly Mickelson Fosdal, age 68, of Rockdale, died Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2011, at her home.

She was born Aug. 21, 1942, in Madison. Parents, Irene Arneson Mickelson Robbins and Alf Soren Mickelson (both deceased); stepfather, Merwin Albert Robbins (deceased); and sister, Arlene Jerdee (deceased).

Beverly graduated from Wisconsin High School 1960 and the UW-Madison 1964 with a degree in medical technology. Beverly Married Gerald Olav Fosdal on July 20, 1963, at Luther Memorial Church in Madison.

She worked as a medical technologist for one year and was then able to stay home to raise their three children, Scott (Lauren) of Virginia Beach, Va., Mark (Vanessa) of Seattle, Wash., and Kristen Marsan (Sean) of Eden Prairie, Minn.

Survived by her husband, Gerry; her three children; and six grandchildren, Jacob, William, Miriam and Henry Marsan, and Griffin and Sydney Fosdal. There are nieces and cousins as well.

Bev and Gerry hosted two AFS students and were foster parents to several children and teens over the years (Laurine Johnson and Scott Swick have remained lifelong friends). They enjoyed opening their home for community, church and family events.

In 1976, Bev and Gerry bought the Fosdal Home Bakery from Gerry’s mother. The bakery has been in continuous business since 1949. Beverly was more involved with the bookkeeping, office and retail sales while Gerry was involved in the baking, production, hiring and marketing. In 1985 they bought the Cambridge Bakery. They sold both businesses in 2005 to their capable manager, Joseph Crubaugh.

As longtime members of the Willerup United Methodist Church of Cambridge, Beverly was active on several boards and taught Sunday school, working with children and youth. Both she and husband, Gerry, have been involved in small group Bible studies since 1966, leading as well as learning from the many people involved. Through their married lives, Gerry and Bev strived by the grace of God, to live out their lives to coincide with what they believed.

Bev has said that cancer has been a gift, a gift that forces one to concentrate on priorities (other people), plan for the ultimate journey (eternity with God in heaven) and passing on the skills and knowledge that she has learned from so many others over the years.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Willerup UMC, Harry Alexander Bible Fund and/or donate a unit of blood in memory of Beverly Fosdal or sign up as an organ donor.

Grateful thanks can be given to the UW Hospital Cancer Oncology Clinic and special hugs to Dr. Bailey who stayed with Bev through the whole cancer battle.

Visitation will be held from 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 28, 2011, at WILLERUP UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, Cambridge. Funeral Services will be held on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2011, at 11 a.m. at WILLERUP UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, Cambridge with the Rev. Brian Cook officiating.

www.nitardyfuneralhome.com <http://www.nitardyfuneralhome.com/>

Received 6/5/10                                        Note:  To be added to what’s already on the Web site

Married to Gerry in 1963, living in Rockdale WI. a small village near Cambridge, WI

Kids:

Scott, now 44,  Married,  Colonel in the Marine Corps, attending the Naval War college at Newport RI .  One child with one expected in September.

Mark, now 41. Married. works as a Medical Science Liaison at Cephalon Pharmaceutical.  Lives in Seattle.

Kristen now 38.  Married, 4 kids, home-schools her children. Lives in Minneapolis.  Husband, Sean Marsan, with the Fish and Wildlife Service in Minneapolis.

Bev graduated from the UW in 1964, majoring in Medical Technology.  She and her husband ran the Fosdal Home Bakery in Stoughton and also in Cambridge.  They sold both bakeries in 2005, thus she retired.  Bev is the mother of three kids, about 7 foster kids and 2 AFS students.

Past hobbies were cross-country and downhill skiing and some biking.  Now it is an occasional game of golf.  Reading of course is a must.  But her passion is being involved in small group Bible studies.  These may be small groups of 7-10 people or just two people meeting for coffee or wine with the open Bible.  Over the years she and her husband, Gerry, have provided leadership in seminars, marriage and child raising being the main topics.

Living with cancer these last 5 years is a testimony to the combination work of God, Doctors and researchers.  Hurrah for modern medicine.  Didn’t expect to be here this long, but God is good.

Past hobbies were cross-country and downhill skiing and some biking.  Now it is an occasional game of golf.  Reading of course is a must.  But her passion is being involved in small group Bible studies.  These may be small groups of 7-10 people or just two people meeting for coffee or wine with the open Bible.  Over the years she and her husband, Gerry, have provided leadership in seminars, marriage and child raising being the main topics.

Living with cancer these last 5 years is a testimony to the combination work of God, Doctors and researchers.  Hurrah for modern medicine.  Didn’t expect to be here this long, but God is good.

Retired from Bakery ownership in Stoughton, WI. Beverly oversaw the financial and legal at 2 bakery locations. Never used her Medical Technology degree. In spare time, cross-country skiing, golfing, meeting with friends over coffee or a glass of wine and studying the Bible together.

Memories about deceased members, teachers:
Barb Lemon died so young. Our friendship blossomed more in college days as we sat around the Rat and discussed the meaning of life with all of us pseudo-intellectuals. She seemed to understand my search for answers and tolerate all of the words that we kept spewing out.

Ann Elkow died a few years ago. In high school, she and I were part of that very special group of kids with divorced parents. Ann didn’t seem to get into as much trouble as I did though. Her home was always a very welcoming place. Ann and I practiced smoking together, I hope it wasn’t lung cancer that killed her.

Memories of special events/occurrences, Marty’s was the before and after school hang-out. How did they put up with us? We bought our cherry cokes, loosened the tops of salt shakers, occupied booths forever. Going there was a coming of age ritual. I think that most parents were a bit nervous about that. They should have saved their worries for the Badger Tavern. Remember, some of us had false ID cards? We would go to the Badger for lunch or after school or after games or just to hang out. The friendly bartenders always had time to listen to a sad story.

I remember the lunch time journeys to Rennes for candy bars. Somehow we persuaded those collegiate clerks that if candy bars were 6/25c that we could buy 3 for 10c. How did we do that? We have lost those fine skills of debate.

Our senior year we pulled off the senior skip day, first time in seven years as I recall. We all met at the Union, if, what was it, 90% of the class showed, we would go ahead with it. We knew that we needed a large number of kids. The school couldn’t expel the whole senior class. We had a few kids who called in sick and stayed home, a couple of kids walked the silent halls at school but the majority of us went to Gary Castiglione’s in the morning and my sister’s home in the afternoon. We had rules, no drinking, riding around in cars…, we called the radio station, we had a dress-up day the following day, and our punishment was an 8 hour study hall on Saturday. Awesome, we had reports written and assignments done weeks in advance.

Tom Stafford was forever trying to charm our young English teacher with her hair in the tight bun, what was her name? (Ms. Patton)

The girls gym was on the 4th floor, exercise was just getting there. Volleyball was a bit challenging with all of those rafters. But then we had our girls rules, two hits a person. And basketball had girls rules too, guards and forwards, we were incapable of running the full floor as I recall.

Some of us non-Latin lovers, got to take Russian language on the hill. That and Russian History Class were in response to the success of Sputnik. Remember our idioms of the week? I can still quote some of them.

Tri-Hi, the famous girl’s sorority. As I recall the important part was getting asked to join, but I don’t recall anything about what the club did.

The Italian Village on State Street was a dinner place for special events or was that a college place? (We went there lots in HS Bev.)

The Regents Scholar Tests, was it just for prestige? I think that we had the awards ceremony in the Memorial Union Theatre. Graduation was there, and what else? Football at Breese Stevens Field and basketball games in the Fieldhouse. We had big venues for such a little school.