A memorial service for Almon Leroy Scherf

will be held at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11, at Salem Lutheran Church in Albert Lea. The Rev. Jay Dahlvang will officiate. Interment will be in Ft. Snelling National Cemetery. Memorials will be gratefully accepted for First Lutheran Youth/Mexico Mission Trips, Sauk Centre, and the Freeborn County Humane Society, Albert Lea. Military honors will be accorded by Albert Lea area veterans’ groups.

Almon Leroy Scherf

passed away Feb. 4, 2006, at St. Michael’s Nursing Home in Sauk Centre. He was a resident of Albert Lea, until May, 2005, then moved to the Riverview Manor to be near his daughter, Pat. The son of Merna (Stewart) and Elmer Scherf, &8220;Roy&8221; or “Al,” as most knew him, was born on Sept. 16, 1921, in Floyd County, Iowa. He attended Floyd High School, graduating in 1939.

Following graduation, Roy worked as a barn painter and held various jobs before moving to Los Angeles to work assembly in the aircraft industry for Lockheed-Vega. He remained there until, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard as a radioman. Stationed in various ports, among them Duluth, New York, and Puerto Rico, he served until the end of the war in 1946.

Roy moved to Albert Lea after his discharge from the Coast Guard. He began working for his Uncle Arnold at Lageson Hardware (later the Marshall Wells store) and playing catcher for Floyd’s new baseball team, which included several of his cousins. He met Betty Metcalf (Hermanson) at the Clark Steet Cafe, who he married on Oct. 21, 1949 (they divorced in 1982). He joined his friend Derald Morfitt at Floorcrafters in 1954, a job he would hold during the birth and raising of his three children, Michael, Patricia, and Robert. As an installer, and later crew manager for the store, he continued in the floor covering business for 38 years. He retired in 1992 after a coronary arrest and bi-pass surgery, dedicating himself to staying active and healthy.

Roy enjoyed bowling, fishing, and woodworking in his younger adult years. In later years and in retirement, his pastimes included memberships at the American Legion, V.F.W., Elks, Eagles, and Health Reach. He belonged to the Solos Club for a while and even “took up” square dancing. Meanwhile, he was an avid gardener, who generously shared his harvests of vegetables and raspberries with his friends and neighbors. He liked to walk, as those who encountered him daily by the lake or at the mall can attest. And he loved spending time with friends: on the golf course, on the dance floor, and at the bowling alley (participating in three leagues), where for many years he held his own as one of the city’s premier senior bowlers. He never failed to entertain with a joke, a witty comment, or a lyric from a song someone’s casual word had brought to mind.

Roy is preceded in death by his parents, Merna and Elmer Scherf.

He is survived by his children: Michael (wife Doreen), an English teacher in Tucson, Ariz.; Pat Newell (husband Mike), an area supervisor for the Central Minnesota Foster Grandparents Program (Catholic Charities, St. Cloud) in Sauk Centre; and Robert (fiancee Coleen Zimmerman), an employee at Hormel Industries in Austin. Roy leaves behind four beautiful granddaughters: Sierra Scherf, Albert Lea, and Abbey, Kelley, and Haeley Newell, Sauk Centre. He has one sibling, a loving sister, Dorothy Boggs, who resides in Woodstock, Ga., with her husband, John – Roy’s good friend. He is survived as well by his three nephews, Steve, Jim, and Mark, and their families.

Roy had been a member of Salem Lutheran Church in Albert Lea for many years and just recently became a member of First Lutheran Church in Sauk Centre. His faith in Christ gave him strength throughout his life, into death, and now gives him peace for eternity.

A sensitive and caring father, a generous friend, a model of hard work and good character – he will be missed by all who knew him.