Orien MacDonald set his last Victor long spring trap on this earth early in the morning on Thursday, August 6, 2015. We imagine he is busy scouting out a new trap line in heaven right about now!

Orien, passionate about trapping since he was a young boy, died at the age of 94 years at the Augustana Mercy Health Care Center in Moose Lake, Minnesota. As a boy, Orien was an expert at trapping skunks and getting them out from under dwellings without getting sprayed. He moved on to other game, which included weasels, muskrats, mink, otters, beavers, raccoons, bobcats, coyotes, and wolves. He was a proud member of the National Trapper's Association as well as the Minnesota Trapper's Association. His favorite spots to trap were the State Line Creek and The Big Fill near Holyoke.

Orien grew up near Groningen and Sandstone, Minnesota, where he attended school from first grade through eighth grade. The Kettle River was his playground. It was during the Great Depression that he helped supplement the family income by trapping, working at a logging camp along the North Shore of Lake Superior, joining the Civilian Conservation Corps near Deerwood, MN, jumping trains to the Dakotas to shock grain where the pay was higher, about two bits a day, and he was a gandy dancer on the railroad.

Orien enlisted in the United States Army in 1942 and attained the rank of corporal. He married Mildred Stover on October 18, 1943, in Nickerson, MN, while home on furlough. Wedding guests gave their gas coupons as gifts so they could take a short honeymoon to Duluth. Orien and Mildred lived in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York, before he was shipped to England during WWII. Mildred was a "Rosie the Riveter" at an airplane factory during that time. Being a wiry guy, Orien was a field lineman and would climb trees to string communication cables from the front lines back to the commanding officers. He was part of the D-Day invasion that landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, the Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes, Belgium and France, and liberated Paris and Dachau Concentration Camp, and then went on to the Rhineland, Germany to defeat the Nazi Army. He served under Generals Omar Bradley and George Patton in Battery A 446th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Automatic Weapons Battalion. Orien was a proud member of VFW Post 3979 in Cloquet, MN.

Upon his discharge, Orien was employed at Wood Conversion, which later became Conwed Corp., in Cloquet. Every week he worked a different shift until his retirement in 1983. Orien built their dream home on 40 acres one mile north of Nickerson in Carlton County. He hand split sandstone blocks from what is now Banning State Park. He also felled the trees and crafted a beautiful and stout home for Mildred and their eight children. Orien was proud of his Scottish and Finnish heritage and looked quite dapper in his MacDonald plaid coat and hat. He had a well-manicured lawn and flower beds, tended huge vegetable gardens, and was always busy building or fixing things around the house. He loved to cut brush ("to make it look like a park") and firewood, mix cement, woodworking, and create useful tools from scraps. Sometimes he would stop on his way home from work along the Nemadji River and hike into the Blackhoof River to try for a muskie. His work was his play and he was most content in the quiet woods of Clear Creek Township with his Thermos of pitch black Arco coffee, pipe filled with Sir Walter Raleigh tobacco, thuringer sandwich, and a bag of lemon drops in his pocket. Each fall you could find Orien boiling traps, deer hunting with his boys at Ice (Round) Lake and he'd look forward to spring beaver trapping and trout fishing on his three favorite streams, Anderson Creek, Silver Creek, and the Little Net River. Being a voracious reader, Orien enjoyed Fur-Fish-Game, Popular Mechanics, and Alaska magazines, and always had a non-fiction book tucked in his lunch pail.

Orien was the fourth child born to Stuart and Aili (Kinnunen) MacDonald in Hastings, Minnesota, on April 20, 1921. (He always commented that he and Hitler had the same birthday.) Orien survived his parents and all seven of his siblings with his sister, Mildred, dying just a few days before him. "Millie must have picked him up on her way to heaven." stated her granddaughter. His siblings were Stuart, Stanley, Mildred, Douglas, Dolores, Donald, and MaryAnn and he was named for his Uncle Orien. His strong and faithful wife, Mildred (Stover), died in 2000. Mildred and Orien were devout parents to their tight-knit family of eight children, all of whom so lovingly and gratefully remember them both today: Susan (Lee) Wehrenberg, Stephen (Nena) MacDonald, Gregg MacDonald, Patricia (Jack) Almos, Kevin MacDonald, Cynthia MacDonald (Larry Grewach), Kathleen (Dan) Harman, and Michael (Kathi) MacDonald. Orien dearly loved his 14 grandchildren, Matthew, Jamis, Sarah, Orien, Aili, Jennifer, John, Andrew, Lauren, Elizabeth, Logan, Quinn, Colin, and William. He enjoyed when his 13 great-grandchildren visited him with all their smiles and activity. Orien was also close to his siblings during their lives and had meaningful relationships with many of his numerous nieces and nephews. He was an admired friend and a well-respected member of the Nickerson and surrounding communities. He will be deeply missed by all. A life well lived.

Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, August 29, 2015, at Oak Lake Lutheran Church near Kerrick, MN, with Pastor Nathan Anderson officiating. Visitation will be an hour before the service at the church and inurnment will be at the Nickerson Community Cemetery immediately following the service with military honors provided by Cloquet American Legion Post #3979 . Family and friends are invited back to the church for refreshments. His children will honor him with music, stories, and reflections in celebration of his memory. Honorary bearers are his grandchildren.

The family would like to give a heartfelt thank you to the staff in the special care wing at Augustana Mercy Health Care Center in Moose Lake for their attentive and loving care of our dad where he lived the last several years and also to St. Croix Hospice. To sign the guestbook online, go to: www.hhkfuneralhome.com. Arrangements are with Hamlin-Hansen-Kosloski Funeral Home of Moose Lake.