Rudolph “Rudy” Burgstaler of Kimball died Thursday, May 4, 2023, at Meeker Manor in Litchfield. He was 85. 
A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 13, at Ostmark Lutheran Church in rural Watkins. Visitation will be from 4-7 p.m. Friday, May 12, at Johnson Hagglund Funeral and Cremation in Litchfield, and will continue one hour prior to the service at the church Saturday. Interment will be in the Ostmark West Kingston Mission Cemetery in rural Watkins.
Rudolph “Rudy” Roy Burgstaler was born Jan. 2, 1938, in Dean Lake Township, Crow Wing County, Minn., on a farm north of Aitkin, the youngest of nine children, to Frank and Frances (Smolnikar) Burgstaler who had immigrated to the United States from Slovenia in Europe. Rudy attended Aitkin Schools, and he received his GED from Litchfield High School in April 1970. He assisted his parents on their dairy and crop farm while growing up. After his parents retired and moved to Fontana, Cal., following other family members, Rudy accompanied them and worked in a gas station and sheet metal plant before entering the U.S. Army in December 1960. He was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., Fort Knox, Ky., Fort Stewart, Ga., and at Augsburg, Germany, during the Berlin Wall crisis. Rudy served 13 months in Germany in the 32nd Armored Division, Company A3D Medium Tank Battalion where he drove a tank. Upon returning from the military in November 1962, he again joined his parents in California and again was employed at a sheet metal plant. In March 1965 (during the big blizzard), he returned to Minnesota to work for his sister Ann and Ernie Hamilton who had a mink ranch north of Kingston; he later purchased the home across the road.
Rudy met Joyce Marie Hess from the North Kingston area at a Halloween costume old-time dance at the Kingston Legion Hall in October 1967, and they married Aug. 17, 1968, at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Minneapolis where Joyce was working as a secretary and singing in the church choir. Upon Rudy’s return to Kingston, he was employed by Erickson Construction in Hutchinson, and later Wally Cates Construction in Plymouth. He started working for the Meeker County Highway Department in February 1969 as a blade operator out of the Watkins shed; he transferred to Kingston in 1974. In May 1985, he became the first road maintenance supervisor for the Meeker County Highway Department where he continued to work until retiring in 1998 at the age of 60 years 6 months, after 29 years and 6 months of service (he had reached the magic “age” of 90) to the county.
Rudy and Joyce joined Ostmark Lutheran Church in rural Watkins in October 1969. He served on the church council for nine years, and church treasurer for three years; he was janitor, served on the property and cemetery committees, and helped make homemade ice cream for the Men’s Club social every July. Rudy was one of the organizers of the Meeker County Snowmobile Trail Assn where he served for 30 years. He served two terms on the Meeker County Fair Board, was president of the Kingston Snow Kings Snowmobile Club, and was one of the organizers of the Lions “Thunder on the Hill” tractor-pulling group for 10 years. Both being raised on dairy farms, in 1969 Rudy and Joyce started renting farmland and eventually farmed 300 acres every year in addition to their full-time jobs; they had a final auction in 1993 when their sons graduated from college and were gone from home.
Rudy and Joyce had two sons, Evan and Lyle. Rudy took over Evan’s quail business when he left for college, raising quail for hunting clubs for a few years. Rudy enjoyed farming, gardening, NASCAR, demolition erbies, deer hunting, fishing, camping, antique and classic cars and tractors, and cutting wood for the furnace. Over the years, he mowed lawns and delivered the Minneapolis Tribune Sunday paper for extra money. After retiring, he helped various area farmers and heavy equipment operators during the summer season. For the following 16 winters they were snowbirds, visiting friends and relatives across the United States, with their RV always returning to the farm where they have lived for more than 54 years.
Rudy was preceded in death by his parents; sisters Ann (and Ernie) Hamilton, Victoria (and Floyd) McCollum, Veronica “Fronie” (and Louie) Deblock, Sylvia (and Roger) Sabart, and Olga “Ollie” DeYoung; and brothers Peter “Frank” (and Marion) Burgstaler, Edwin Burgstaler, and John (and Irene) Burgstaler.
He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Joyce; sons Evan (and Aimee) Burgstaler of Cokato, and Lyle Burgstaler (and partner Mariann Helmin) of Kimball; granddaughters Tara of Huron, S.D., Hannah of Kalispell, Mont., and Megan of Kalispell, Mont.; sister-in-law Helen (and Ed) Burgstaler of Aitkin; and many nieces and nephews.