Elwood Sherwin

Elwood D. Sherwin, the son of Alma, whom he called ‘Mum’ (Thompson) and Edwin Sherwin was born on December 24, 1926 in Willow City, North Dakota. He died at the age of 96 years on Wednesday, May 31, 2023 at the Heart of America Medical Center in Rugby, North Dakota.

Elwood was raised in rural Barton and attended school in the Barton and Willow City area. While in high school, he played basketball and was on the team when his Class C team went to state. He also pitched for a local AAA baseball team and was proud of the fact that he was one of the first ball players that pitched fast enough to have a rising fast ball. On April 16, 1946, Elwood enlisted in the United States Army and was honored to serve his country as a Private First Class in the 509 Composite Group, 603rd Air Engineering Squad located in Roswell, New Mexico. Following his honorable discharge, he returned to North Dakota to farm. He was most proud of his excellent farming skills, when he retired, extended to his love of gardening and had a huge garden north of town. He generously shared his produce with everyone. He was also an inventor and created an automatic pea sheller and with his brother, Bud, invented a folding table and chairs, paint roller cleaner, a telescoping fishing pole and probably many more things we never knew about. He helped curate and donated items to the Prairie Village Museum in Rugby, including tractors, phone equipment and many other historical items. One thing about Elwood, he never did anything partway and had a strong sense of integrity and self-sufficiency. Rare was the person that ever managed to pay for lunch! Elwood was and will always be loved by his nieces, nephews and many friends, who will be missed.

Elwood is survived by his brother-in-law, Robert McKee; many nieces, nephews; other relatives and friends. He was preceded in death by his brothers, Earnest (Doris), Vernon (Helen), Raymond “Bud” (Marcella) and Stanley; his sisters, Helen McKee, Marian (Dwight) Guss and Lucille (Arthur) Cote and his parents.

Visitation will be on Monday from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. at the Anderson Funeral Home in Rugby.

Graveside services and burial with full military honors will be held at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery in Mandan on Tuesday, June 6 at 12:00 noon.

Military Honors Accorded by: The Mandan Honor Guard – VFW Post #707 and American Legion Post #40 and The North Dakota Military Funeral Honors Detail