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Bonnie Warner (Alexander) VIEW PROFILE

Bonnie Warner (Alexander)

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06/19/17 12:18 PM #1    

Bunny Hudak (Moore)

Bonnie Jean Warner Alexander        

Bonnie Jean Warner was born in a blizzard on January 18, 1950, to Dwain and Dorothy (Holway) Warner in Minneapolis, MN.  She was the 4th of six children.  She was my only sister.  We grew up in the house at 141 Bedford St. SE in Minneapolis.

Dad was a professor of zoology and ornithology at the University of Minnesota, and we lived in Mexico in 1953-54 when my Dad was there on sabbatical.  Bonnie attended nursery school there and learned Spanish.  In Minneapolis, we all attended the neighborhood elementary school about 7 blocks away.  Mother asked me (the older sister) to help keep Bonnie on task as we walked to school every day, to assure she did not arrive late.  That was because Bonnie often dawdled along, carefully and curiously crunching the ice which covered the puddles, or pausing to study a butterfly or a spider web along the way.

There were two more trips to Mexico, summers of ’57 and ’61.  Dad taught Bonnie how to skin and stuff birds.  Here is what Bonnie wrote about “Growing Up in the Warner Household”:

“While other children had cats and dogs for pets, the Warner children had nutes, salamanders, owls and other assorted critters.  In second grade at show-and-tell, when other little girls were showing off their new patent leather shoes or Sunday dresses, I came with our 5 foot Bull snake draped around my neck.  And on another occasion I came with our pet hawk on a chain.

In the basement, the Warner children rode giant desert tortoises (until they were donated to the Como Zoo), and once we had to duck huge ravens that were housed in our garage.  Every autumn we had to file past numerous hanging deer carcasses on the porch, accompanied by only the bravest of our neighborhood friends.

On weekend afternoons, while other families were enjoying hotdog picnics at a park, the Warner children were helping to roast a whole pig on a spit.  Other times we were helping to dig a porcupine, a beaver, or a sheep out of a roasting pit.  For Christmas dinner one year we all got a whole octopus boiled in oil on our plates.  Once when I brought some special guests to dinner, Dad served tree rats and rocky mountain oysters, and of course they were all delicious!

When other children were eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at school, the Warner kids were eating leftover elk, antelope, bear, or cow-tongue sandwiches.  Other kids always wanted to know what we were eating, but rarely could we get them to trade sandwiches!

Once, poor Bobby had to share his supper when our pet Saw-whet owl swooped down onto his plate, grabbed his pork chop and flew to the top of the refrigerator to devour its catch.

While other families were gathered around the TV to watch Lawrence Welk on a Saturday night, the Warner children were crowded around the dining room door.  Our Saturday night entertainment consisted of turning the lights down low while our pet Saw-whet owl sat perched on the curtain rod and Dad dangling a live mouse above the Persian carpet…… and then releasing it.  The owl would swoop down, grab the mouse in its talons and carry the struggling mouse to its perch, tearing it apart with its razor-sharp beak.  Oh, how exciting Saturday nights were in the Warner house!

Whenever there was something of interest to see in the sky, Dad would take all of us kids up to Tower Hill with binoculars and a spotting scope.  We watched famous Sputnik pass over, and we observed a number of comets, and moon eclipses.  The day John Glenn was shot into space our parents kept us home from school to watch the TV coverage.

While other families were traveling to the beach or to summer family reunions, the Warners were navigating treacherous Mexican mountain roads, climbing volcanoes or taking Dad’s famous short-cuts through rural Mexico.  On several occasions we encountered washed-out roads, but somehow navigated around them.  We forded flooding rivers in our car, but one time Dad drove the car and Mom and we kids walked through the water with crabs and fish nibbling our toes…. Bonnie whining all the way.   And once when the bridge spanning a giant gorge was washed out we took the railroad trestle!  Here is how that experience went:    after finding the hiway bridge washed out but the RR trestle still standing, Dad walked over to the tracks and listened for trains, putting his ear to the tracks.  Hearing none, he got in the car and drove up onto the tracks, telling all of us 5 children to be quiet and to listen for trains.   We went bump, bump, bump, bump and no one said a word until in the middle of the trestle when Bob, looking down into the gorge, asked quietly, “Dad, what do we do if we hear a train?”   Dad just kept on driving bump, bump, bump and we made it safely across.

Still Bonnie’s words…

One of my fondest memories is of the evenings Dad would read to us.  Mom always came with favorite books like ‘The Pokey Little Puppy’, but when Dad came it was with Robert W. Service tucked under his arm.  His favorite poem was ‘The Cremation of Sam Magee’,” (which both he and Bonnie could recite from memory!)

I now continue with my story of Bonnie’s life.  There were summers at the lake, and lots of fun and games in those early years.  When Bonnie was 14 our Mother died of leukemia, and her teen years became more difficult.  It was the 1960’s.  She took some college courses and worked a few jobs.

In the early 1970’s Bonnie met Robin Alexander in Pine River, MN.  They were married and daughter Meggan arrived.  The young family lived and worked out west in Idaho and Washington for a time, then returned to Minnesota.

Bonnie continued taking college courses, and worked for the MN Dept of Natural Resources as a Wildlife and Fisheries Technician.  In 1977 she graduated from St. Cloud State Univ. with a B.A. in Biology.  She went to work first as a wildlife research assistant with the federal Fish and Wildlife Service, then took a job with the MN DNR as an Aquatic Biologist monitoring herbicide applications in MN lakes and conducting educational programs on lake ecology control of nuisance vegetation – weeds.   Bonnie and Robin divorced and she and Meggan moved to Brainerd, MN -- lake country.

The next chapter in Bonnie’s story is a favorite of mine because it so exemplifies the indomitable spirit of this woman – the strength, the creativity, the putting the shoulder to the grindstone.  Bonnie was born in the year of the Ox, according to the Chinese, and I hope she doesn’t mind my characterizing her in this way, but she could get her mind set on something and just plow straight ahead to the achieving of her goal.

So, at some point she decided that applications of herbicides in lakes for weed control were not the best management practice, and she wanted to work in a positive way to address the problem lakeshore owners had with weeds.  She thought mechanical harvesting of weeds was a viable alternative.

After carefully researching the subject, Bonnie secured a business loan, she located the machine she wanted, she drove to Waukesha, WI to pick up this huge machine, trailored it home, learned how to operate it, started advertising and her new business, Clear Water Weed Harvesting, was born.  For 5 years she, with help from her friend Larry, ran this business in the Brainerd area.

Her two sons, Jessen and Loren, were born.  She was a busy mother and business owner and she made her mark in the Brainerd community in other ways.  She co-founded a chapter of MADD.  Her former husband, Robin, had tragically died in an auto accident involving alcohol.   Alcohol had been a bane in Bonnie’s life for some years, and she joined AA and successfully overcame this life challenge.  It was a victory she was proud of and she has mentored many others over the years through this challenge.   From Bonnie the activist, there were letters to the editor about lenient DWI sentences, about chlorination of the Brainerd water supply, about the use of aquatic herbicides and once, she and her boys picketed a new wood products plant being built nearby. 

Bonnie, never one to let grass grow under her feet, in 1989 sold her business and became… a teacher.  She took a position at Central Lakes College in Brainerd teaching Biology.  She designed a new course, Biology of Women, which is still taught there today.  Continuing her education, Bonnie received her Masters Degree in Biology in 1990 from St. Cloud State University.

In 1991 Bonnie, Meggan, Jessen and Loren moved to Valley City, ND.  She liked the small town atmosphere, and considered it a good place to raise her children.  She took a position at Valley City State University, and we started calling her ‘professor’.  She served on the faculty there for 16 years.

As an Associate Professor, Bonnie taught Botany, Human Anatomy and Physiology, General Biology, Mycology, Microbiology, Ecology and Limnology.   She coordinated the VCSU monthly science lecture series, and was often a presenter herself.  Clippings from the local newspaper read: “’ND Wildflowers’ topic of lecture at VCSU”, “Alexander to present slides of African bush country”, and “Mushrooms, molds, and miracles: fungi and history”.  She presented papers at professional meetings around the country, such as “Morphometric and Trophic Characteristics of Sixty North Dakota Lakes” and “Identification and Presence of Eurasian Watermilfoil in North Dakota”.

This later topic concerned the fact that it was Bonnie’s students from a fall semester ecology class who made the first discovery of Eurasian Watermilfoil in ND waters (1996).   A newspaper clipping reads, “The North Dakota Game and Fish personnel consider Alexander the North Dakota expert on Eurasian watermilfoil.”

Bonnie’s active interest in water quality extended beyond the classroom.  She spent her summers doing water quality sampling for the Army Corps of Engineers and the ND Dept. of Health.  As a member of the group, “People to Save the Sheyenne”, Bonnie went to Washington to lobby congress to stop a plan to build an outlet at Devil’s Lake which would have diverted water from Devil’s Lake into the nearby Sheyenne River (1997).

While teaching full-time, Bonnie pursued her doctorate at North Dakota State University in Fargo, earning her Ph.D. in natural resources management in May, 2006.  Her thesis research was done on the western prairie fringed orchid.  I enjoyed a chance to accompany Bonnie on one of her forays into the Sheyenne National Grassland, riding ATV’s and searching for the elusive orchid (which is a threatened species in ND).  She was a natural - tromping around out there!

A few more things I want to mention about my sister Bonnie.

Bonnie lived much of her adult life with hearing loss resulting from an inherited disease, otosclerosis.  But, like everything else, she just dealt with it.  She told me once that she wanted to be an advocate for people who needed hearing aids, but who did not want to use them.

In our family the last child born (’55) was a downs syndrome child, David, who never came home, but has lived his entire life in State institutions.  As was common in those days, we grew up never knowing this brother.  But, Bonnie determined to meet David, and she took her children to visit him, and encouraged all of us siblings to get to know David as well.  My brothers and I are grateful to Bonnie for this effort of love on her part.

Bonnie was proud of her heritage.  She took her children to Cape Cod where our Mayflower family has much history, and 2 years ago she traveled to Norway where she visited the farm our great-grandfather emigrated from.

Travel.  Did I say travel?  Bonnie had a great desire to see every place on this earth.  Her bags rarely stayed unpacked for long.  She traveled with friends, with family, her children, her colleagues, and with her students.  A highlight for her was inviting our father in 1999 to accompany her and a group of students on a study trip to Mexico.  She also traveled with Dad to Africa and Alaska.  There were trips to Hawaii and Iceland and study trips with her students to Baja California and to Australia.

It seems Bonnie was always on the run.  If she ever took time to sit down, she’d grab her knitting, or a book (she read trashy romance novels!)  She enjoyed square dancing, Meryl Streep movies and Star Trek.  She didn’t watch much TV, but she liked the weather channel.  She and Larry had a cabin in Minnesota and a get-away-trailer in Texas.

Life for Bonnie was a myriad of journeys, all interwoven.  On these journeys she was student learning, she was teacher teaching.  Her great joy was the sharing of what she loved, of what she valued, of what fascinated her about life.  She especially loved her children and her grandchildren, the darlings of her life.

Bonnie passed away August 18 in Pine River, MN.  It is difficult to understand how a cancer can so swiftly come to a healthy person and take them away.  Let us not despair, but rather look to her life and contemplate how we might be inspired by her story. 

by Betsy Warner Hoppe

August 2007

 


08/06/17 10:56 PM #2    

Bunny Hudak (Moore)

 Bonnie Alexander

 

PINE RIVER - Bonnie Warner Alexander, 57, died on Aug. 18, 2007, in Pine River, Minn.

Bonnie was born in Minneapolis during a blizzard on Jan. 18, 1950, to Dr. Dwain and Dorothy Warner. She was raised in southeast Minneapolis, attended the University of Minnesota, St. Cloud State University and North Dakota State University where she received her Ph.D. in natural resources management.

Bonnie worked for the Minnesota DNR in wildlife and fisheries research and as an aquatic biologist for eight years before moving to Valley City, N.D., where she taught biology for 16 years. Bonnie was dedicated to her work and mentored many students through her years. Bonnie struggled with alcoholism during her early years and achieved sobriety at the age of 33 through AA. She mentored many other people struggling with addiction throughout the rest of her life.

Bonnie loved the outdoors and connected with the natural world in a spiritual way. Nature was her cathedral. She was an activist on human rights and the environment. One of her goals in life was to see as much of God's earth as she could. She visited every state in the U.S., every state in Mexico and every province in Canada. She also made it to five of the seven continents in the world from the Outback to Oslo. She saw it all.

In 1973, Bonnie married Robin Alexander who was later killed in an automobile crash. The achievement that she was the proudest of and enjoyed the most was raising her three children. She was preceded in death by her parents; her former husband, Robin; and one brother, Robert Warner.

She is survived by sons, Loren, Pine River, Minn., and Jessen, Pillager, Minn.; daughter, Meggan Smith (Erik); and dearly loved grandchildren, Savannah, Westyn, Morgan, Ryleigh and Nora, all of Jamestown, N.D.; brothers, Bill (Martha) Warner, Wayzata, Minn., Richard (Linda) Warner, River Falls, Wis., David Warner, Red Wing, Minn.; and sister, Betsy (Paul) Hoppe, Ogilvie, Minn.; stepmother, Marie Ward, Stanchfield, Minn.; and special friend, Larry Gill, Pine River, Minn.

A memorial service will be held at Vangstad Auditorium on the Campus of Valley City State University on Wednesday, Aug. 29, at 4 p.m.

 

 


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