Norval Gerhard Hegland

Feb. 2, 1915-Jan. 12, 2002

LAKESIDE, Mont. Rev. Norval Gerhard Hegland died Jan. 12 at his home in Lakeside, Mont., at the age of 86.

He was born on Feb. 2, 1915 in a sod hut near Plentywood, Mont., where his father William and mother Hilda homesteaded. Norval was the oldest son, the second child in a family of five.

Norval earned a bachelor of arts degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., and then attended Luther Seminary in St. Paul. Ordained as a Lutheran clergyman in Plentywood on June 15, 1941, he subsequently soloed as a pilot at Jordan, Montana on Jan. 14, 1946. With these attainments, he was prepared for his life work as a flying pastor. On March 14, 1942, Norval married Margaret Naeseth, daughter of Rev. C. G. Naeseth and his wife Emma.

The couple moved to Moorhead, Minn. where Norval served as Professor of Religion and Dean of Men at Concordia College, and then the Heglands served in Miles City, Mont.

After World War II, Norval served a 9-church flying parish known as the Lemmon Circuit Air Parish, based in Lemmon, S. D. and then Newell. From 1951-1960, Norval served as missionary and flying pastor while superintendent of the Lutheran Eskimo Mission on the Seward Peninsula in Alaska. As his most significant accomplishment, he looked back on establishing Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Nome, Alaska. Before that, the Eskimoes who migrated to Nome from outlying native villages were “spiritual orphans.”

Norval returned with his family to the lower 48 states to serve parishes in Philip and Parker, S. D.

Later Norval and Margaret served as co-administrators of the Good Samaritan Nursing Homes in Hermiston, and St. Francis, Kan. Norval served his last parish in Wibaux, Mont., before he and Margaret retired to Hamilton and later to Lakeside, Mont.

Norval and Margaret raised three children: Paul, who lives in Arlington, Va.; Mary, who lives in San Jose, Calif.,; and Ruth, also of Arlington.

Norval Hegland was preceded in death by his wife Margaret; his granddaughter Helen Margarethe Hegland; and his brother, Leonard.

He is survived by his children: Paul Hegland and his wife Kristen Puckett, Mary Hegland and Ruth Hegland; grandchildren Matthew Puckett, Elizabeth and Ben Hegland, Karima Hooglund and Allen Danze; great granddaughter, Nakeysa; and his siblings Helen Simundson, Alma Jakobson, Bill Hegland and his wife Faye, and Virginia Hegland, wife of the late Leonard Hegland.

Memorial gifts may be send to Our Savior’s Lutheran Church, P.O. Box 965, Nome, Alaska 99762.