Melcom (Max) Bjerke

Melcom "Max" Bjerke, age 90, rural Bradley, died peacefully with family by his side early Monday morning, February 27, 2012 in the Prairie Lakes Hospital at Watertown. Funeral services will be held on Thursday, March 1, 2012 at 10AM in the Crocker Lutheran Church at Crocker, SD with Minister Marion Grimes officiating. Burial will follow in the Rose Hill Cemetery at Clark. Following the burial, everyone is invited to the Bradley Community Center for a dinner and a time of fellowship. Music will be presented by Marvine Obermeier as organist, with the Bradley/Crocker Church Choir and Fred Obermeier singing. The active casketbearers will be Allen, Mike and Gary Bjerke and Gary, Jeff, Jim and Joel Nelson. The honorary casketbearers will be all other nieces and nephews. Visitation will be held on Wednesday from 4-6PM at the Furness Funeral Home in Clark and after 9AM at the Church on Thursday morning. He was born Edward Melcom Bjerke on July 25, 1921, northeast of Bradley, SD, the son of George and Ragna (Siggerud) Bjerke. Max or Melcom "Max" as he became known, attended country school near Bradley and then was a 1939 graduate of Bradley High School. Following his schooling, he assisted on the family farm. On September 29, 1944 he was united in marriage to Lucille Nelson at Bradley. The couple lived and farmed near Bradley their entire married life. Lucille died on September 18, 1985. In July of 1988 he married Marj Brekke. She died in 2005. Max was a truly at his best when he was outdoors, whether it was sitting in a chair by the house with a cup of coffee or in the garage working on a small engine. He could fix nearly anything when it came to small engines. His love of the outdoors included raising small grains when he was farming and having dairy cows. After his retirement from farming, Max spent countless hours in the garden and tending to an array of flowers. Max thoroughly enjoyed the goodies that people would bring by the house, but he really held dear the fellowship he had with so many. Max was baptized and confirmed in the Calvary Lutheran Church and after that church closed, he became a member of the Crocker Lutheran Church where he was involved in various Church activities including the Men in Mission, being seen frying many a pancake or in the Bradley/Crocker Church Choir. He was a former member of the Bradley School Board and the Federal Home Loan Bank Board. Preceding him in death were his parents and siblings, Palmer (Lela), Richard, Oscar, Gilman (Dorothy), Tenny, Olive (Carl) Zweig, Helga (Lester) Finstad and Gladys (Lowell) Bull. Grateful for having shared in his life are his children, Larry (Lucy) Bjerke of Watertown, Nancy Tarbox of Bradley and Steve Bjerke and partner Loren Mark of Los Angeles, CA, 7 grandchildren, Nathan, Jason, Jeremy, Kristin, Will, Keith and Amber and 6 great-grandchildren, Zach, Aiden, Carson, Cait, Seth and Elijah. He also leaves a sister, Myrtle (Gerald) Batenhorst of Frist, TX and sisters-in-law, Esther Bjerke of Crocker, Louse Bjerke of Clark and Joyce Bjerke Schoenbeck of Watertown. For further information please visit www.furnessfuneralhome.com