Barbara Satrom

Barbara Satrom, age 76, passed away comfortably on September 6, 2024 while surrounded by her family and at home on her beloved Spectacle Lake near Cambridge, MN. She had courageously battled cancer for the last few years of her life. A Celebration of Life will be held at the Cambridge Lutheran Church at 11:00 A.M. Saturday, September 14th with visiting time and a meal at the conclusion of the service. Burial of her urn will take place at a later date in Memorial Park Cemetery in Grand Forks, ND. In honor of Barb's love and respect for Spectacle Lake, memorials are preferred to be made in care of the Spectacle Lake Improvement Association, Inc.
Barbara, lovingly known as Barb to all, was born on March 21, 1948 in Grand Forks, North Dakota to Vernon "Bud" and Dorothy (Fritz) Stowe. She had one sibling, her sister Judy, who died in 2013. Barb graduated from Grand Forks Central HS in 1966 and then graduated from the University of North Dakota, School of Medicine, in 1970. She became a registered Occupational Therapist after fulfilling her Affiliation requirements at the University of Minnesota and the Veterans Administration Hospital in Minneapolis. While attending UND she was a proud member of the Gamma Phi Beta Sorority.
In early 1964, while attending high school, she met a fellow student named Thomas "Tom" Satrom who asked her to go to a $.25 "sock hop dance" at the local YWCA. They danced to the music of a brand new band called the Beatles. The two of them were inseparable for the next 60 plus years, until her death. They were married in Grand Forks on December 27, 1969 while Barb was completing her last few months of her college degree. Her husband Tom had already graduated from UND a few months prior to their marriage and was in his first year at the University of Minnesota Law School. So after their marriage, Barb spent the next few months completing her college degree while living in her sorority house where her sorority sisters affectionately referred to her as that "older married woman"!
After graduating, Barb moved to Minneapolis to join Tom.They lived in a 21 story high rise apartment near the U of M. Tom served as the caretaker there for income and free rent. Shortly after Barb then took a job with the State of MN as an OT at the State Hospital in Cambridge, MN. She commuted with some fellow employees/friends from Minneapolis and grew to love the peacefulness and friendliness of the Cambridge community. While Barb and Tom loved living in Minneapolis, they had vowed in the 1960's that they wanted to live on a lake year-round and be close to work, so in 1972, when Tom was getting ready to graduate, Barb convinced Tom to drive with her to look at Cambridge and, most importantly, to look at a pristine, spring fed lake called Spectacle Lake. They loved it and they have lived on the lake since they moved up in 1972.
From 1972-1976, Barb worked as an OT and spent her free time creating crafts, beautiful flower gardens, and traveling/ camping/ backpacking/ rollerblading/ water skiing/boating and fishing with Tom. She also served as President of the Cambridge Jr. Women's Club, started golfing (she was lucky enough to win the Purple Hawk ladies Calcutta event in her first year), was one of the first women curlers at the Cambridge Curling Club, became a member of the Cambridge Lutheran Church, taught figure skating, and just enjoyed nature and the lake.
In 1976 she became the very proud mother of their first child, Mary Barbara, followed by the birth of Susan Kay in 1979 and Jane Elizabeth in 1983. She sharply reduced her work hours to devote her energies to the three girls, teaching them so much about nature, flowers, crafts, worms, birds and animals, among the normal teaching duties that mothers perform so well. In more recent years she was blessed with the opportunity to help pass on those same skills and interests to her grandchildren, Lucas, Kyle and Josh (in Rochester, MN (Mary and Ed Clark); and Kyler and Kenly Kaspar (Susan and Jason Kaspar) in Cambridge, MN. She was so happy to be with them and she was justifiably proud of each of them as students, athletes and most of all, as good people who cared for others.
Barb also loved the times with her family and friends at the Satrom family cabins on Berry Lake near Sioux Narrows, Ontario, that were shared and owned by the families of Tom and his brother, Jim Satrom of Grand Forks, ND. Barb would even travel to the cabins on her own at times when Tom and the kids were unable to go. She would take her sewing machine, crafts and quilting material up there (Tom is still mumbling about loading everything into her SUV and wondering why she forgot the kitchen sink!). She would stay up there for a week by herself, enjoying the peacefulness and the nature, but not the occasional black bear that she and her trusty miniature dachshund Buster would have to chase away. She also loved riding her ATV with Tom in the Rocky Mountains in CO, in the SD Black Hills and in MN and Canada. She especially loved it when the kids, their spouses and kids would go four-wheeling with her and Tom.
Barb and Tom were grateful for the last two winters where they were in beautiful AZ where Barb was being treated at the City of Hope Cancer Center. These were tough times for her but she loved the beautiful house, the warmth and the two Christmas holidays there where all of the kids and grandkids rolled in so that the family could be together and also show support for Barb. That family support never wavered. Nor did she.
Barb passed away comfortably on September 6, 2024 while surrounded by her family and at home on her beloved Spectacle Lake near Cambridge, MN. She had courageously battled cancer for the last few years of her life. She was preceded in death by her parents Bud and Dorothy Stowe, and by her sister Judy of CO. Barb is survived by her loving husband, Tom Satrom; daughter, Mary (Ed) Clark (Lucas, Kyle and Josh Clark); daughter, Susan (Jason) Kaspar (Kyler and Kenly Kasper); daughter, Jane Satrom; and by many other family and friends.