A service celebrating the life of Wilfred “Bill” Rosencrans will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, June 13, at Hettinger Lutheran Church, with the Rev. Kathleen Dettmann officiating. A special remembrance time for family and friends will be held at 7 p.m. Friday, June 12, at Hettinger Lutheran Church. Burial will be near Powers Lake, N.D., at a later time. Evanson-Jensen Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Wilfred Wayne “Bill” Rosencrans
Bill Rosencrans, 72, of Hettinger, who was Adams County’s longest serving Agricultural Extension Agent, died June 4, 2009 at West River Regional Medical Center, after a courageous 15-month battle with lung cancer.
He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Carole Hegland Rosencrans of Hettinger; three children and six grandchildren, Jamie Rosencrans of Minneapolis; Todd and Libby Rosencrans, Remi, Beau and Rafferty of Bainbridge Island, WA; and Kendra Rosencrans and Paul Huston, Riley, Ruari and Ryder of Austin, TX. He is also survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Larry and Laura Jean Rosencrans, of Tioga; by his sister and brother-in-law, June and Archie Gamble, of St. Louis Park, MN, and his sister, Darlene Cvancara, of Stanley; by his sister-in-law Connie Rosencrans of Powers Lake, ND; by his brother-in-law Don Seaver of Coulee Dam, WA; and by many nieces and nephews.
Bill Rosencrans was born on July 16, 1936, in a farmhouse at Blaisdell, North Dakota, to Maidie and Maurice Rosencrans. He was the fifth of seven children and the second son. His mother always told him that it was an exceptionally hot day to be having a baby, and it was, for July 16 was in the middle of the most severe heat wave in the modern history of North America. Temperatures around the state were well over 100 degrees for much of the summer, and on July 6, 1936, the thermometer hit 121 degrees in Steele.
That heat wave, along with the devastation of the Dust Bowl, lead to major changes in American agricultural practices, which Bill became both a student and mentor of during his long career with the North Dakota Cooperative Extension Service.
In 1942, Maurice and Maidie moved their family to a farm near Powers Lake, N.D., a hard prairie place where the first crop each spring was that of rocks, chunks of alien granite brought down from Canada by glaciers 10,000 years ago. While farming and ranching kept the family going, Billy, as his mother called him, was always interested in knowing more. And she was his greatest advocate, so much so that when the one-room school south of their farm closed because of a lack of students, Maidie moved Bill and his two younger brothers into an open schoolhouse two miles north and two miles west of their farm and lived with them there during the winter, teaching them, so as not to break the state law against homeschooling. Bill and his two younger brothers were the only students.
Bill was also determined to go to high school, even though his father would rather have had him quit school in order to stay home and work. So again, his mother intervened for him, and bought a small house in town and moved there so that he and his younger brothers could go to Powers Lake High School, from which he graduated in 1954.
College was next in his plan, and he spent two years at the North Dakota State School of Forestry in Bottineau, transferring to North Dakota Agricultural College in Fargo and graduating from NDAC in 1959. And it was a good investment, Bill said. “At that time, college cost $450 and that included room and board. It was cheap.”
In the midst of high school and college, Bill noticed a red-haired girl whose parents farmed south of White Earth. He knew her as the sister of a boy in his Lutheran confirmation class. Then he began to notice her at church suppers, school carnivals and area dances. Even though he was older, and had college and then a stint in the Army where he was called to active duty during the Berlin Crisis, she remained on his mind.
“I remember the first time she attracted my attention,” he said. “She was a freshman or sophomore in high school. She was playing the piano at a dance with Martin (her father) and old Thompson.”
That dance was at the Bohemian Hall just south of Manitou, “a building sitting out on the prairie by itself. That was when I saw her and thought she was cute.”
Carole Hegland and Bill Rosencrans were married on a stormy Dec. 27, 1964, in the White Earth Lutheran Church of White Earth. There were blizzards on either side of their wedding day, but the cold and snow didn’t keep Bill from driving the 300-mile round trip from Powers Lake to Bismarck on Christmas Eve to get his blood tested and approved for marriage after the blood sample froze in the mail from Fort Yates, where he was living, to the laboratory at the state capital. He didn’t tell his bride about his last-minute trip in the blustery weather. The wedding went on as planned, but the couple ended up spending their wedding night at Carole’s parents’ farm because it was too stormy for them to drive to Minot and then onto Minneapolis for their honeymoon.
Bill and Carole lived in Fort Yates, N.D., until 1967, when Bill went to North Dakota State University in Fargo to pursue a master’s degree in animal husbandry. He graduated in 1968 and moved to Hettinger, where he became the county agricultural extension agent. He was the 16th agent but served the longest, 22 years, from 1968 to 1990. He served as the Area Leadership Development Specialist from 1991-1993, the position from which he retired.
During his tenure as Adams County Agent, Bill was a great resource and advocate for area farmers and ranchers. He was active in the community, involved with the Hettinger Chamber of Commerce, of which he has been a member for nearly 40 years, and serving on its Ag Committee; and in his church. He was a mentor and friend. He said he was the coffee-maker for many special events and organizations. One of his special interests was youth and leadership development, and he spent much of his time actively coaching and nurturing youth development through the Adams County 4-H program, which had some of its most active years during his time as county agent.
Bill believed strongly in education, service and leadership, which are the cornerstones of the 4-H program, and he worked to instill those values in his children and in those he mentored.
For his service to agriculture, extension, to youth and to his community, Bill received the Distinguished Service Award in 1985 from the National Association of County Agricultural Agents. In 1986 he was one of three awarded the State Meritorious Service Award from Epsilon Sigma Phi, the National Honorary Extension Fraternity, of which he was a lifetime member. He was elected president of the North Dakota Agricultural Extension Agents in 1988. Hewas also honored for his work in Adams County at the 1996 NDSU Harvest Bowl, which recognizes the success, dedication and hard work of outstanding agriculturists in 53 counties in North Dakota and five counties in Minnesota.
In 1978, Bill and Carole moved to a farmhouse and 10 acres north of Hettinger, where Bill pursued his love of gardening and raising purebred Yorkshire hogs. He cultivated a huge garden each year, carefully planting and tending a wide variety of vegetables, along with currant bushes and several apple varieties which he grafted to native crab apple trees. His passion for purebred Yorkshire hogs involved the whole family, as Kendra, Todd and Jamie had many hands-on lessons in pork production – from farrowing to feeding to weighing to culling. During the years that his children were involved in 4-H, they spent a lot of time showing hogs at the N.D. State Fair; at the Adams County 4-H Achievement Days, and at the Lemmon Jr. Livestock Show. Bill was the coach for 4-H Livestock Judging and Crops Judging, which his kids were involved in. All three participated in 4-H clubs and especially the speech and demonstration contests, which Bill thought were especially important. He was a loving husband and a good father.
In 1993, Bill became active with the North Dakota Pork Producers Council until he retired from raising hogs in 2002.
Bill liked knowing about things, especially agriculture and current events. He collected all the USDA Agricultural Yearbooks for 1900 to 1999. He studied the daily newspaper; listened to the morning news on KNDC Radio; and always watched the evening news. Sometimes it seemed as though he didn’t have much to say; other times he greatly enjoyed debating and discussing agriculture, economics, medicine, science and the human condition. He was very proud of his children, their spouses, and his grandchildren. He also had a quick, but very dry, sense of humor. He enjoyed making witty observations and puns, even to the end of his life. He was deeply loved and he will be greatly missed.
