Herb Gustafson’s family was planning a big celebration for his 100th birthday, but his health rapidly declined after he reached the century milestone. The special menu intended for his party will instead be served at his funeral buffet.
The World War II veteran and retired Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy had been living an active and independent life. Just before his birthday last month, he turned too quickly and fell in his apartment. He died Friday.
After his fall, he underwent surgery for a broken hip. The doctor told the family, “Your dad’s strong, he should do just fine,” said daughter Kristy DuBois. He was determined to get back to living on his own at Applewood Pointe in Woodbury, a senior cooperative where he was a longtime resident.
Up until then, Gustafson woke up at 5 a.m. daily and went to lift weights at Applewood Pointe’s gym.
After surgery for his broken hip, Gustafson was in transitional care. He wasn’t feeling well and wound up back in the hospital, where tests showed cancer.
He’d been diagnosed with lymphoma last fall. He had a tumor removed then and radiation treatment, and the doctor told him the cancer would likely come back in another part of his body. “We didn’t realize it was going to be so soon,” DuBois said.
His family brought him back home to Applewood Pointe in Woodbury last Wednesday on hospice care.
“Once he realized he was home, he started perking up and within half an hour he was telling me to call all these people, they were his card-playing buddies, he said. They just happened to be all the single women in the building,” DuBois said with a chuckle. “So he had a steady stream of women coming through to visit him.”
Gustafson’s family was by his side when he passed away Friday.
Grew up in St. Paul
Gustafson was born Feb. 10, 1924, and grew up in St. Paul. After graduating from Monroe High School, he served in the Army from 1943 to 1946 and was stationed in New Guinea and the Philippines.
He returned to St. Paul, where he worked for the St. Paul school district for 16 years as the storekeeper and buyer for the schools’ trade shops. He was a Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy from 1969 to 1989. And he had a 70-year hobby of photography, winning international awards for his artistic photos.
He and Rose, who Gustafson was married to for 64 years when she died in 2011, raised their four children in St. Paul and later moved to Vadnais Heights.
“He was very kind and generous, and he just enjoyed life,” DuBois said. “He wanted to stay active. He still had all of his mental faculties, even up until the end. I attribute that to him staying engaged with people and being independent and wanting to have people around him.”
Gustafson’s family had been planning a big birthday party at Applewood Pointe for after his Feb. 10 birthday and, after his Feb. 6 fall, they intended to hold it at a later date.
The menu was to be appetizers from around the world because Rose and Herb Gustafson had traveled extensively.
“Instead of having your typical funeral buffet, I’m going to keep the menu from the party,” DuBois said. “It was something he was looking forward to.”
Funeral arrangements are being finalized. In addition to DuBois, Gustafson is survived by his children, Karen Gustafson, Kathy Bidney and Aric Gustafson, along with his grandchildren and great grandchildren.
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