Orbin L. Brandvold, 85, a resident of Fergus Falls, MN passed away on Wednesday, February 22, 2023 at his home in Park Gardens Assisted Living.
Orbin was born October 1, 1937, in Carbury, North Dakota, the son of Olaf M. Brandvold and Alta (Hall) Brandvold. He grew up in a family of six children on a farm seven miles north of Bottineau, North Dakota, in the Turtle Mountains. After High School he joined the Army and served in Korea, during peacetime, as a helicopter mechanic for two years before entering the Forestry two-year college in Bottineau. Graduating from the Forestry, he entered the North Dakota State University, from which he graduated with a BA in agronomy in 1963. In 1960, he married Yvonne Meyer, a secretary at the Forestry.
After marriage, Orbin worked for the Soil Conservation Service in Devils Lake, Stanley, Rolette, Napoleon, Wahpeton, and Grand Forks, North Dakota until he retired in 1991. Yvonne died in 1998. Orbin married Betty Olson from Kansas City, Missouri in 2002, and the two enjoyed a life of leisure for nearly twenty years, traveling around the American West in their motor home. When the two retired from full-time adventuring, they settled in Kansas City, MO, until Betty’s death in 2022. That same year, Orbin moved to Fergus Falls, MN to be close to his son, Peter Brandvold, a writer. He has one daughter, Stacey Brandvold-Townsend, a tennis coach, who resides in Aurora, Colorado.
Aside from his children, he is survived by one sister, Virginia Rafferty of Castle Rock, CO and one brother, Larry Brandvold of Souris, North Dakota, as well as three grandsons- Eli, Trey, and Brunson and many nieces and nephews.
No services are being planned at this time.
Arrangements provided by Olson Funeral Home in Fergus Falls.
Online condolences may be sent to
www.olsonfuneralhome.com