Obituary

Karen Aileen (Larson) Mogard

Karen Mogard (Larson) of Minnetonka died Sunday, January 24, 2021 at Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park after a three-week battle with COVID-19. She had just turned 60, and had recently lost her own father to the same terrible disease.

A virtual memorial service was held for Karen on Saturday, February 6^th, at 4:00pm. The family will schedule another memorial service once it is safe for friends and family to gather again in crowds and hug each other tightly.

Karen Aileen Larson was born on December 19, 1960 to Merlin and Irene (Olstad) Larson. She grew up on a rural dairy farm just outside Dawson, was baptized and confirmed at Providence Valley Lutheran Church, and graduated from Dawson High School in 1979.

In 1977, she married Ronald Mogard, also from Dawson, MN. Although they divorced in 1988, she preferred to keep the same surname as her children: Sarah, Jeremy, and Brianna. Karen was happiest spending time with her family, and for the past twelve years, she excelled at doting on her five grandchildren. She loved them dearly, and they loved her back just as fiercely.

Karen’s career played out like one of those fabled American Dream stories: a single mom who worked her way up from an entry-level position to become a highly skilled engineer. She started in the silk-screening department at Bergquist Company in 1984, but by the end of her career, was a pre-production engineer designing touch-panel switch membranes. She survived many layoffs and acquisitions, working with many of the same team members for decades. Her work ethic and eagerness to learn suited her career well.

While Karen excelled in her career, she lived her life outside work to the fullest. She believed that experiences were worth so much more than material goods, and loved traveling the world to experience new places and people. Karen was an explorer at heart, and loved nature. She tried to capture the essence of her travels with her photography: capturing the winding, orange-and-red-sculptured curves in Utah, frost-tipped tree branches in winter, and her favorite: the waves from brilliant blue waters crashing into luxuriant stretches of warm, sandy beach.

Karen was well known for finding beauty in the minutiae of everyday life. She left behind thousands of close-up photos of flowers, abstract textures found on her daily walks in nature, double rainbows and brilliantly-colored sunsets. She was an artist as well as a photographer, and for the past several years, she spent most of her time painting. She loved playing around with abstract experiments, like dirty pours, and alcohol inks. As with everything else in her life, Karen was very modest about her talents, so many of her friends and family are only now learning the extent of her gifts.

Karen also found great joy in helping others. She volunteered for many organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity, Operation Christmas Child, and Feed My Starving Children. She went on mission trips to help build homes in Kentucky, Honduras, and Guatemala. She was also an active member of People in Business Care at Bergquist Company.

Karen is survived by her children: Sarah (Jess) Olson of Eden Prairie, MN, Jeremy Mogard (Erin Skinner) of Eden Prairie, MN and Brianna Mogard (Jordon Fleck) of Columbia Heights, MN; grandchildren: Helena, Mira, Beckham, Rilynn and Teagan; mother: Irene Larson of Dawson, MN; siblings: Kathy (Ken) Behrendt of Redwood Falls, MN, Kim (Dave) Lokken of Watertown, MN and Keith (Angie) Larson of Hudson, WI, as well as many other members of her extended family.

She was preceded in death by her father, Merlin Larson, and her grandparents, Helmer and Ellen (Johnson) Larson, Raymond and Helen (Smith) Olstad.