John & Elaine Andrist Story
John & Elaine Andrist
Little Johnny Andrist said he always liked girls.
Trouble is, he would write in a memoir many years later, they rarely returned the affection.
“Late in my sophomore year I set my sights on a red haired girl who was a transfer from country school.
“She spurned me at first, as most girls did, but I persisted. The last two years of high school we became pretty constant companions, somewhat to the chagrin of my mother, who liked Elaine, but felt I was too young to be so smitten.
“Elaine’s mother probably felt the same way, particularly the time when three of us on the varsity basketball team were dating the three Thvedt sisters. Sometimes all three couples would arrive at the back door of the Thvedt home about the same time. On one occasion we checked the refrigerator, found and devoured a whole plate full of sandwiches which had carefully been prepared for the church circle meeting Elaine’s mom would be hosting the next day. She had amazing restraint not to kill us on the spot, but she went to her grave 60 years later, still retelling the story.”
By the time they graduated from Crosby High School in 1949, they were making plans for marriage, thinking he would get drafted into the Army and they’d say their vows during his first furlough back home. The draft didn’t come, so they moved on without it, getting married June 17, 1951 at Skabo Lutheran Church not far from the Thvedt family farm in Frederick Township.
It was the start of a life together that would span 57 years, all of them in their beloved home town of Crosby, where they would raise five children and take on countless community leadership roles.
Elaine started the marriage as an elementary school teacher, but that role lasted less than a year, cut short by the start of a family. For the next 30-plus years it was her job to tend to the children and the household, which she did with skill and lovingkindness.
But there was much more to her life of giving. For many years she taught piano playing to budding musicians. For nearly 50 years she was an organist at First Presbyterian Church. She served on the local school board, volunteered for the local hospital auxiliary and the school music boosters program, was active in a study club, and participated as an accompanist and vocalist with the international Northwest Chorus and Orchestra. Along with her dedication to family, church and community, Elaine’s beautifully manicured flower gardens became legendary.
John, meanwhile, worked just a few years at his father’s newspaper, The Divide County Journal, before leasing and subsequently purchasing the business. He quickly became an innovator in the newspaper industry, winning countless awards and becoming president of the North Dakota Newspaper Association. Before long he became the first – and only – North Dakotan to rise to the presidency of the National Newspaper Association. He was inducted into the NDNA Hall of Fame, and received, the Amos Award, the highest honor bestowed by NNA.
Along the way, John’s leadership in the Jaycees, the Kiwanis Club, the Crosby Business Builders and the St. Luke’s Hospital and foundation put him at the forefront of dozens of community improvement projects. Further afield, he took on leadership roles with Prairie Public Broadcasting and the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation. Later he developed a passion for philanthropy, finding great joy in using his personal resources for the benefit of others.
When he sold the newspaper business to his son in 1991, John embarked on 21 years of service in the North Dakota State Senate, where he developed a reputation as a thoughtful gentleman statesman skilled at finding common ground among opposing sides.
His legislative service was interrupted for a short time in the early 2000s when his beloved Elaine was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and was given less than a year to live. She battled the disease through surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation before it claimed her life Oct. 7, 2008 at St. Luke’s Hospital in Crosby.
“I have always known what a blessing Elaine was,” John wrote. “My dad reminded me frequently that I out-married myself. He was as smitten as I was. But it has taken her death for me to fully understand and appreciate the depths of her love and devotion to our family.”
Now separated from the love of his life for the first time in nearly 60 years, John refocused his energy on legislative service. He was elected for the sixth time in 2012 while still recovering from a stroke that ended his lifelong practice of jogging and his long-time love of bicycle riding.
He served out the 2013 legislative session before giving up his seat and eventually moving to an assisted living apartment in Fargo to be closer to family.
In January of 2018 another stroke hit, this one so severe that there could be no recovery. He died Jan. 17, 2008. He and Elaine are buried side by side in the Crosby Cemetery.
Through their estate planning they provided for the formation of the John and Elaine Andrist Charitable Trust and designated that its endowment be used for quality of life enhancements in their home community for at least 50 years.
Their lives of love and service are best summarized in John’s reply in an oral history interview to a question about how he would like to be remembered:
“I’d like to be remembered as one who gave more than he got.”
Turning selfishness into selflessness
By John M. Andrist
There are only two kinds of people -- accumulators and distributors. No matter how much money they make, distributors have nothing left over. No matter how little they earn, accumulators always have some left over. This piece is written for the aging accumulators, folks like me.
Six months after we die, everything we have accumulated is gone -- redistributed for somebody else’s pleasure, or sometimes their ruination. I’m selfish enough so I realized some fifteen years ago that I deserved the pleasure of spending some of it, giving it away if you will.
This satisfies a second human longing. Someplace in this journey we call life we come to realize that all the toys we acquire give only temporary pleasure. Real joy and satisfaction comes from the things we do for and give to others.
You just can’t beat turning your natural selfishness into joy until you make that discovery.
The beginning is honestly recognizing when you have more than you are going to need for yourself, and more than your children will really need. That’s a key. We all want to leave something for our children. But only so much can contribute good to their lives. Little joy, and much travail, comes with winning life’s lotteries.
Alas, we accumulators have a hard time shifting gears after a lifetime practicing the art of not spending. So it takes some practice, actually pretty hard work. We’re fighting basic human instinct as persons who have difficulty spending money on ourselves, while contemplating giving it away to someone else, or some cause that we like.
But hey, there is pure joy in discovering the art of turning selfishness into selflessness.
Mind you, I’m not perfect. After giving away half of my income for most of two decades I still have this problem of more savings than I’m going to need for the remaining time God is likely to give me.
A special friend of mine, Sheila Schafer, told me her husband, the late Harold Schafer, once had an accumulation of some $80 million, but gave most of it away before he died. Now, he’s the expert, the guy who really had life figured out. You and I probably have only a pittance in comparison, but just as the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes reminds us there is a time for everything, accumulators need to realize this discovery is the essence of happiness.
Obituary for John M. Andrist
Longtime Crosby resident John Andrist, family man, newspaper man, senator and consummate supporter of his community, died Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2018, in a Fargo hospital following a stroke the previous week. He was 86.John had a deep affection for his community, his state, and the legislative district he served as state senator for 22 years. At the same time he had a lifetime dedication to his journalism profession, in which he rose to lead both his state newspaper association and the National Newspaper Association -- the latter of which he served as president in 1989-90, the only North Dakotan to ever hold that position.His colleagues honored him by making him the first living North Dakota Newspaper Hall of Fame recipient in 2000, the same year he was chosen to receive NNA's highest honor, the Amos Award, for distinguished service to his profession and the nation. Gov. George Sinner presented him with a National Leadership Award of Excellence for these achievements.He began full time work in his father's newspaper, The Journal, when he was still a teen, in 1950. By 1958 he became managing editor, and in 1961 he purchased the business outright. For more than 60 years he wrote his weekly newspaper column called "John-a-Dreams", which he syndicated to four other newspapers in the last few years of his life.But it was his leadership in his early adult years as chairman of successful fund raising campaigns to build the new St. Luke's Hospital and the Good Samaritan Center, both in Crosby, that shaped a lifelong philosophy of community philanthropy and "giving back". In that role he was a lead contributor and helped organize the St. Luke's Community Foundation, and he single-handedly directed the effort to save and restore Crosby's downtown Penney Building when it was on the verge of demolition.He was a principle in construction of Crosby’s Wallin Manor, a leader in development and securing funding to build Vournas Field, and organized the effort for city expansion into the Crosby Acres development. He often laughed about investing three times in the large Crosby building that was used to manufacture Knudson Tractors, turned Pamida store, turned pasta plant, turned New Century Ag truck center.He was an organizer for the Crosby Jaycee chapter and Crosby Business Builders, forerunner of the Crosby Chamber. He served for more than 25 years on the St. Luke's Hospital Board, including several as chairman, was twice president of the Crosby Kiwanis Club. He and the late Del Ekness collaborated in creating the Crosby Ludefest.When Crosby's First National Bank failed, he worked to form an investor group to get it re-established. When that effort failed he quietly worked behind the scenes to secure a commitment from First National of Williston to save and secure the facility.John was a lifelong member of Crosby's First Presbyterian Church until it closed, after which he moved his membership to Concordia Lutheran. He loved sports, and in nearly 50 years of faithful jogging he boasted enough miles to circle the earth more than three times. But it was bicycling that was his real athletic love, and he was a familiar sight peddling on Crosby streets for half a century.He also had a deep love for music, nurtured by his wife, Elaine, whom he credited as being the family pro ("I'm just a shower singer!"). And yet together they performed throughout their lives in just about every community choral and musical theatre production, from "Show Boat" to "Oklahoma" to the Northwest Chorus.After his son Steve came home to purchase and operate the family newspaper in 1991, John was elected to the State Senate in 1992, a role he served with distinction. For many years he chaired the Political Subdivisions Committee, because of his passion for local government. Both the League of Cities, and the Township Officers Association honored him with legislator of year awards. In addition he served four sessions on the Appropriations Committee, and was a regular for several sessions on the Industry, Business and Labor Committee. He contributed substantially to major projects in Crosby and Medora, and was central to creation and growth of the St. Luke's Community Foundation and the North Dakota Newspaper Association Education Foundation. His most substantial personal gift was given to keep the dream alive when the effort to build a Crosby Health and Wellness Center was at a low point and appeared to be sinking.In 2014 John left his lifelong home of Crosby and moved into Touchmark, an assisted living community in Fargo. At that point he became an active member of Fargo's First Presbyterian Church. His funeral service will be held there at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20, 2018. Memorial and burial services will be held in Crosby this June.He spent his last half century only one block from the modest home where he was delivered by a midwife August 1, 1931, to Calvin L. and Lela (Revis) Andrist. He often said his best achievement was winning the heart of his childhood sweetheart, Elaine Thvedt, whom he married June 17, 1951. They were inseparable through 57 years of marriage until cancer conquered her October 7, 2008, nearly five years after being first diagnosed as having less than a year to live. They raised five children who survive: Pamela (Mike) Burns of Fargo, Steve (Barbara) Andrist of Bismarck, Paula (Andrew) Holmberg of Minnetonka, Stan (Jan Nelson) Andrist of Fargo, and Penny (Lisa Edison Smith) Andrist of Fargo.There are also eleven grandchildren: Aaron Burns, Jennifer Thorp, Elizabeth Thomsen and Chelsea Burns; Graham, Levi and Evan Andrist; A.J. and Kaatrin Holmberg; and Jonah and Hannah Andrist. He also had 11 great-grandchildren.His four siblings preceded him in death: Marlys Elliot, and Calvin, Franklin (Butch) and Willard Andrist.