Raymond Lammers Sept. 21, 1926 – Oct. 31, 2009

MORRIS — Raymond J. Lammers, 83, of Morris, formerly of Villard, died Saturday at home.

The service will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Assumption Catholic Church in Morris. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery in Osakis. Military rites will be provided by the Morris American Legion, VFW and AmVets.

Visitation will be for one hour prior to services at the church. Memorials are preferred to the University of Minnesota Morris. Arrangements are by Pedersen Funeral Home in Morris.

He was born Sept. 21, 1926, in Hand County, S.D., to Herman and Gertrude (Johanning) Lammers. He graduated from high school in Flandreau, S.D., and from College of St. Thomas in St. Paul with an English major. He joined the U.S. Army and studied Mandarin Chinese at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Calif. He was assigned to posts in Washington, D.C., and Seoul, South Korea.

He married Dolores Bowman in 1952 in Osakis. After his discharge from the Army, he entered graduate school at the University of Minnesota. He completed his Ph.D. in 1962 and joined the faculty at the newly created branch of the University in Morris. For the next 33 years, until his retirement in 1995, he was chair of the speech and theater department. He received the Morse-Alumni award for outstanding contributions to undergraduate education at the University of Minnesota in 1969 and helped design the Humanities and Fine Arts Center, which was completed in 1973.

He is survived by his wife; three children: Mark (and Jennifer) of St. Paul, Deidre (and Gen) Onishi of Ithaca, N.Y., and Matthew (and Elizabeth) of Eden Prairie; and five grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by two infant children, one brother and four sisters.