Douglas Everhart

Douglas LeRoy Everhart, 73, of Erhard, died Wednesday, January 22, 2014, at his home in rural Erhard, MN.
Douglas was born March 13, 1940 in Ponsford, Minnesota to Kenneth and Evelyn (Triggs) Everhart. He grew up in Park Rapids, graduating from high school in the class of 1958. He enjoyed swimming, and was an avid hunter and fisherman. He worked summers setting pins in a bowling alley and as a cabin boy at a local resort. Excelling in sports, he received the Athlete of the Year Award at the annual dinner for high school athletes sponsored by the Quarterbacks Club in 1958. Doug graduated with a basketball scholarship to NDSU. He went to Alaska before Statehood, but returned to Park Rapids to complete high school. The lure of the Alaskan paycheck along with hunting and fishing in a new state was too much competition for him to complete college.
On April 8, 1967 he married Jeanne Chase at Deer Creek, Minnesota in the EUB Church. A drive over the Alaska Highway that spring, took the newlyweds to Fairbanks, Alaska. Both daughters, Renee and Pamela and two grandsons, Connor and Gareth, were born in Fairbanks. Typical of construction families, they moved about the state with the work, but built their home in Fairbanks.
Doug started working construction jobs with his tools as a cement finisher. He became a foreman working for Peter Kiewitt Sons and worked his way up to managing construction contracts, over 40 years in the State of Alaska. Managing multimillion dollar jobs for Modern Construction and Alaska Mechanical, as well as other companies, he was the “go-to-man” the construction community respected and looked to for solving problems. He always put 110 percent of himself in everything he did. His work included managing military contracts, Fluor Housing and other pipeline related projects in Valdez, a 12 million dollar courthouse in Anchorage, a Coast Guard station in Valdez, Fish Hatchery in Juneau, many buildings on the University of Alaska Campus in Fairbanks, an award winning school in Kake, and in 1990, the first underground injection sewage treatment plant in the U.S. at Homer, Alaska.
In 1999, Doug and Jeanne retired to Minnesota near Pelican Rapids, then moved to the new home he built East of Erhard. He could be seen on High Island Lake, almost daily, fishing rod in hand. He enjoyed fishing with his family and friends, his friend Rudy Butenas, and especially his grandsons. He loved animals and had miniature horses until he was physically unable to care for them. Doug started heirloom tomatoes from seed each spring and shared plants with the neighborhood, friends and family. He also enjoyed cooking, and meeting friends and former classmates at the casino.
Preceding him in death were his parents Kenneth and Evelyn (Triggs) Everhart.
Doug will be greatly missed by his wife Jeanne, daughters Renee Everhart and her husband Richard Worthington, Pamela Clark and husband James Clark, and two grandsons that meant the world to him, Connor Douglas Clark, and Gareth Albert James Clark. Also surviving him is his sister Sharon Dalsky and husband Mark, and brother Norman Everhart, brother-in-laws, a sister-in-law, numerous nieces, nephews, and other loving family.
We remember him as a generous, loving, problem solver, who was the backbone of his family and extended family. We thank God for giving us Doug for a while, and showing us his unconditional love.
Memorials preferred to The Richard M. Schulze Family American Cancer Society Hope Lodge, Minneapolis or the Lakeland Hospice, Fergus Falls.