LeRoy A. Oberlander

LeRoy A. Oberlander, 83, Bismarck, died June 17, 2018. Services will be held at 11:00 am Friday, June 22, at Trinity Lutheran Church, 3rd St. and Ave. A, Bismarck, with Rev. Paul Schick officiating. Burial is at Sunset Memorial Gardens, Bismarck. Visitation will be held from 3:00 pm – 8:00 pm Thursday, June 21, at Eastgate Funeral Service, 2302 E. Divide Ave., Bismarck. LeRoy was born on a farm near Medina, ND, in 1934, the son of Paul and Magdalena (Graf) Oberlander. He lived there until 1947 when the family moved to Bismarck, and where he graduated from Bismarck High School in 1953. LeRoy graduated from Wartburg College in Waverly, IA, in 1957. He accepted a position as an English instructor at Kulm High School Here he met Jenell Linzbach, a nursing student at Jamestown College, and the two married on June 4, 1961, at Trinity Lutheran Church in Bismarck, ND. The Oberlander’s moved to Beach where LeRoy taught English and German and had an opportunity to further his study of German with Stanford University in Bad Boll, Germany. He later accepted a position to teach German at Dickinson State University until his retirement in 2000. While in Dickinson, he also taught Drivers Education for the Dickinson Public Schools and for the North Dakota Safety Council. LeRoy served as coordinator for the North Dakota Students of German. He served two terms as President of North Dakota Teachers of Foreign Languages (FLAND), served as President of the North Dakota Education Association (Dickinson chapter). Her served as the North Dakota Representative to the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages. He helped organize the Germans from Russia Historical Society and served as its second President. He also served as a board member of the Southwest Regional Museum in Dickinson, a board member of the Dickinson Educators Credit Union, played a major role in the Dickinson State Elderhostel program, which brought people to DSC from across the nation and Europe. He was an active member of the Frontier Lodge of Odd Fellows in Dickinson, and where he served as chaplain and Nobel Grand.   The thing LeRoy enjoyed the most was his trips to Germany and Austria with his students. It gave the students a chance to experience the culture that they had been exposed to in the classroom. LeRoy, Jenell, and Allen went to Europe for six weeks to visit Allen’s parents and family, who he stayed with as an exchange student in Austria. LeRoy is survived by his wife of 57 years, Jenell, Bismarck; his three children, Jennifer, Allen, and Karla, all in the Minneapolis, MN, area. He was preceded in death by his parents; his granddaughter, Emily Grace Lewandowski; his two brothers-in-law, Lou Verne and Neale Linzbach; and his mother-in-law and father-in-law.