David Ronald Aaseng

David Ronald Aaseng, husband, father, grandfather, and a Lutheran minister who served many rural Montana churches for over thirty years, died at his home outside of Red Lodge, MT on March 11, 2025. He was 77.
Though Dave lived in Montana nearly his entire adult life, he always carried the long O of his Minnesota upbringing as a talisman in his speech. He was born to Florence McMartin and Ronald Aaseng on December 10th, 1947, in Crookston, Minnesota, the first of four sons. He grew up on a small farm outside McIntosh, and attended the University of Minnesota, earning his degree in Agricultural Economics. He intended to work as a county agent, but on a summer Lutheran Youth Encounter trip to Finland in 1969 he felt the call to join the ministry.
Just before beginning seminary, Dave was working as an orderly at Midway Hospital in St. Paul where he met an ER nurse, Joan Parker, about whom he remarked to a coworker, "That Miss Parker has the dirtiest nursing shoes I've ever seen." Their first date was in April 1970, and were married 8 months later on December 19, 1970. Joan always maintained that Dave married her for her body and her car – a '64 Pontiac Catalina. Dave wasn't a car guy.
Joan's playfulness leavened Dave's seriousness, and the two spent the next 54 years building a life humble in material possessions and rich in love and relationships. They raised three sons, Jeremy, Jon, and Joshua, who gave them six grandchildren, two by two.
Dave loved being outdoors and working with his hands. He tended many gardens, and found great satisfaction in woodworking, in particular refinishing projects. Joan, always the more adventurous half, convinced him to take up alpine skiing as an adult, which he embraced with equal parts joy and frustration. He loved camping, hiking, and canoeing. He tolerated dogs and cats.
Dave graduated Luther Seminary in 1974 and served over a dozen churches in his career - 6 permanent calls and several as an interim. He thrived ministering in rural communities, and was particularly gifted in the small personal interactions with his parishioners, be it providing marriage counseling, leading bible studies and men's breakfasts, or visiting people in their home or at the hospital. And he could deliver a tight ten minute sermon that connected the quotidian to the spiritual. Though church councils always seemed difficult, and indeed one sent him questioning whether ministry was for him in his middle years. Fortunately for residents of eastern Montana, Dave found a renewed commitment to his work as an interim pastor, serving churches in Culbertson, Bainville, Terry, Fallon, Circle, Richey, Joplin, Rudyard, Glendive, and Fairview. His final permanent call was a joint placement at First Lutheran in Circle and American Lutheran in Richey, serving 7 years until he retired in 2008.
Seemingly unable to give up working at Christmas, Dave found great joy in retirement working as a professional Santa Claus. Joining the ranks known as "Real Santas," he grew out his beard and donned the red velvet suit and black leather boots for seven years, occupying malls on the east coast and midwest, typically from November 1st ("Too early, Santa!" he would often hear) through Christmas Eve, flying home Christmas day to be with Mrs. Claus.
He worked as a Santa until the creeping symptoms of a neurological condition, of which he was unaware, prevented him from doing so. In 2015 he was diagnosed with Spinocerebellar Ataxia-8, a hereditary condition previously unknown to be in his family. As sometimes happens with these conditions, the impetus to get tested came only when his eldest son Jeremy began exhibiting similar symptoms. Gradually the condition deteriorated his coordination and speech, and took away a good many of the things he loved doing, though he never lost his curiosity, sense of humor, and love of good food. In June of 2024 he rapidly declined with the onset of a seizure disorder, and spent the last seven months of his life under the immaculate love and care of Joan, whose shoes remained no less dirty than 54 years before.
Dave took his final communion at home with the hospice chaplain on Sunday, March 9th with Joan, Jon, Josh, and his granddaughter Isabella. And at 3am on Tuesday March 11th, with Joan and Jon at his side, Dave breathed his last.
Dave is preceded in death by his brother Arthur, father Ronald, and mother Florence. He's survived by his brothers Gordon (Barbara) and Curt (Sharon), wife Joan, three sons, Jeremy, Jon and Josh, daughters-in-law Amber and Danielle, and six grandchildren, Tyler, Matthew, Isabella, Scarlett, Wyatt, and Evelyn, and several nieces, nephews, and great nieces and nephews.
In accordance with his wishes, Dave will be buried in a simple wooden coffin, built by his son Jon, hewn with the tools he leaves behind. Dave's service will be held at St. Olaf Lutheran Church on Thursday, March 20th at 2pm, where he will be laid to rest overlooking the expansive Beartooth Mountains.