William “Bill” Sindelir, 72

A Memorial service for Bill will be held on Saturday, April 9, 2022 at 2:00PM at First Lutheran Church in Baudette. Obituary will be reposted at a later time.

William (Bill) Sindelir was born January 6, 1950 at Metcalf Maternity Home (prior to Trinity Hospital) in Baudette, Minnesota to Stanley and Virgie (Stanley) Sindelir. He spent his early years across the Bay in Spooner and in 1957 the family moved a mile East of town along the Rainy River where friends and family fished and swam in the summer and fished and skated in the winter. The dominant indoor winter activity was pingpong on the table that their Dad built in their basement where everyone would gather and play. The table is now the kitchen counter top at the family hunting shack. Bill played football and hockey and graduated from BHS in 1968. He went on to UMD to play Bulldog hockey.

In January 1972 Bill started his career with Lake of the Woods County. He began as a Soil Conservation District Aid. He soon moved to the County Highway Department. Advancing from Survey Crew Chief, to Engineering Supervisor, to Assistant Engineer over time and was also Acting Engineer during some interim periods between the seven County Engineers he worked with. Bill was proud of his accomplishments which included the design and construction of hundreds of miles of bituminous and gravel roadways, bike paths, over one hundred-twenty bridges and structures, and many miles of drainageways and numerous special projects during his career. He was also proud of mentoring numerous student summer employees, many who later became engineers. He valued the relationships he developed with his many co-workers and County Commissioners he worked with through those years. Bill retired in 2012 after forty years of serving the county.

In 1979 Bill married Debra Erickson after waiting two years for her return from the Peace Corps in Nicaragua. A civil war brought Deb home a few months early in October of 1978 and they were married that following June. They built a home on the Baudette River in the country on land Bill's father acquired after his return from WWII. Their daughter Kelsey made it a family in 1986 and she became her Dad's lifelong fishing, hunting, and sports partner.

In 1993 Bill, Deb, and Kelsey began spending much of their summers at their cabin on Birch Beach. They upgraded the cabin, bunk house, and even the outhouse, spending twenty-six years watching the sun rise out of Lake of the Woods, fishing, canoeing, paddle boating, kayaking, playing on the beach and loving the lake life.

Bill and Deb traveled as often as they could, enjoying trips to Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua, Italy and Spain. They spent parts of some winters in South Carolina and Costa Rica. In 2016 Deb booked a girlfriend trip to Italy so Kelsey told her Dad "let's go on an Alaskan fishing trip! Mom can't say no". Off they went!

In June of 2019 Bill was diagnosed at the Mayo Clinic with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Over that summer, Bill and Deb sold their Baudette home and Birch Beach cabin and built a new home in Rochester to be closer to the care needed for his debilitating disease. Family friends already lived in the area and Bill and Deb also quickly gained many more new neighborhood friends, and the caring circle grew. Bill kept saying if he would have been able to personally pick his new neighbors he wouldn't have done as well.

Bill peacefully passed away at Seasons Hospice House in Rochester on Feb. 6, 2022.

He is survived by his wife Debra of Rochester, Minnesota and daughter Kelsey of Grand Forks, North Dakota, brothers Frank Sindelir and Ron (Jane) Sindelir of Baudette, sister Cindy (Greg) Dally of Thief River Falls, sister-in-law Sue Sindelir Hasbargen (Kit) of Birchdale, brother-in-law Jack Duick of Baudette, brother-in-law Mark (Teri) Erickson of Lakeville, sister-in-law Diane (Don) Hayes of Roseau, brother-in-law Mike (Pat) Erickson of Pine City, sister-in-law Susie (Jeff) Boeckmann of Deephaven, stepmother-in-law Janeva Erickson of Baudette and all his wonderful nieces and nephews and their families. Bill was preceded in death by his parents Stanley and Virgie Sindelir, brother Bob Sindelir, sister Cathie Duick, mother-in-law Bertha Erickson and father-in-law Dale M. Erickson.