Douglas Holmgren of Northfield, MN passed away on November 9th 2024 at St. Mary's hospital in Rochester, MN following a hard fought illness at the age of 72.

Doug was born to Harold and Gladys Holmgren in 1952 and grew up on the family farm in Evansville, MN. He was an excellent student and a fiercely competitive athlete that lettered in football, basketball, baseball and track.

He was a diligent worker and farming had become a part of who Doug was and so, after graduation he followed that passion and studied Agronomy in college. He was a man of many hobbies and seemingly knew everything about farming, hunting, fishing, gardening, classic cars and many others.

In the summer of seventy-two he spent the summer helping his grandparents on their farm. While attending church with them, he met Deb who would become the love of his life. They were married a year later in that same church and spent the next fifty-one years together.

Doug and Deb grew deep, lifelong friendships while raising a family in their church and the communities in which they lived. Throughout his life he leaned heavily on his relentless work ethic and navigated interesting career endeavors. He took on his last career endeavor in 1997 to try computer programming. Like everything else he focused on, he excelled. And wrote healthcare software until he retired over twenty years later.

During his time as computer programmer, he and Deb would come to be able to build their dream home together. They would work together to build a beautiful home with the help of friends in the Alexandria area and family. The home became a hub for an amazing family that would grow from three children to 16 grandchildren and 16 great grandchildren. The blessing of family was one of Doug's biggest treasures.

Doug never forgot about his hobbies and was enthused to have close friends and family that shared them. He was an extremely generous man that would help anyone with anything if he had the resources. His gift of service was hard to miss and even harder to compete with. His family would be the greatest benefactor of the knowledge he would share through his gift of service.

Above everything, Doug sought to be a follower of Christ and to become more Christ-like every day.

He was preceded in death by his parents, two brothers, grandchildren and grandparents.

A celebration of life service will be held at 2pm on Saturday, November 23rd, 2024 at Canvas Church in Dundas, MN and officiated by Pastor Jed McGuire.

Refreshments to follow the service.

*There will not be a visitation prior to the service.

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