On December 5, 2018 Alden David Palmer Jr. went home to be with his Lord. He was also reunited with his son David and wife Flossie, where, as we speak, they are dancing in His presence once again.
Known to his friends as “Dave” he also was affectionately known over the years as “Big Louie,” “The Red Cardinal,” “The 3M Tape Man,” “Papa” and the one he sported on his license plates, “W0PRW”. He was a son, a sailor, a radioman, an outdoorsman, a scout leader, a husband, a father, a grandfather and a great-grandfather. He served St. John’s Catholic Church for the years he and Flossie lived in Grand Marais in every possible capacity, from making coffee and shoveling snow to standing in as an altar boy.
He spent countless hours trolling Devil’s Track Lake in search of the elusive walleye, but usually ended up settling for bass and northerns. He was a holiday rambler, a foiled dinner maker and the best star hike guide a boy could wish for.
He loved movies and his laugh was distinguishable in any room full of people. He could fix anything electrical, build you a shelf or wardrobe or make you a suitcase out of cardboard boxes and 3M tape. If you needed a nut, bolt or screw, he had it in a Skippy jar somewhere in the garage, and if you needed a tool he had one, but you best put it back where you found it.
He could grow roses of any color, grass on any kind of soil and every animal in the forest knew where his house was. I suspect they will miss him almost as much as we will and you will start seeing skinnier deer and panhandling foxes roaming town in the near future. He could whistle you a tune prettier than any bird and could call a cardinal from a far off tree until it almost sat on his red beret. He could paddle a canoe through the smallest river opening or so silently that you could sneak up on nesting eagles to watch them teach their young to fly.
He knew every great campsite in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and he showed them to us. Where Flossie kept the post office running from her stamp consumption, Papa single-handedly kept Kodak in business with the amount of 35 mm film and slides he purchased and shot. He couldn’t take five steps without snapping a picture of a flower, spider web or chipmunk.
He spent many weekends in his car communicating with others in the Amateur Radio Club to keep mushers, runners and firefighters safe. I can still hear him signing off with “73s” to everyone on the band. He was defined by over 70 years of love for one woman, and though he joked about his mistress in the attic, his devotion to her was nothing less than inspirational.
Mostly he loved his family and will forever be remembered for his boundless hospitality, hard work ethic and hearty laugh. He leaves behind a daughter, daughter-in-law, two grandsons and six great-grandchildren as well as many friends. His family would like to extend a very special thank you to all of the staff at the Care Center for the months of loving service and care they gave him. You are incredible people doing a difficult job. A memorial service will be held later this spring at St. John’s.
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