James S Warren III

James S. Warren III DVM, age 82 of Glenwood, died Sunday, May 4, 2025 at Windmill Pond Memory Care in Alexandria, Minnesota with his wife and children by his side. A visitation will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Wednesday, May 28th, at St. Andrew Lutheran Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, followed by a funeral service at 2:00 p.m. Family and friends are invited to a reception celebrating Jim's life beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Chanhassen American Legion in Chanhassen, Minnesota. Inurnment will be in Fort Snelling National Cemetery in St. Paul, Minnesota. Arrangements are with the Hoplin-Hitchcock Funeral Home in Glenwood.
James Stewart Warren III, was born in Staten Island, New York on July 11, 1942. He was a Captain of his high school football team and proud graduate of Curtis High School Class of 1960. Wanting to leave the big city behind him, he enrolled at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he met the love of his life, Karen Kruesel. He graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Philosophy in 1964.
Jim joined the Navy in the fall of 1964, was commissioned as an Officer and went to flight school in Pensacola, Florida. He was granted leave in March 1965 to travel to Minnesota to marry Karen in her home town of Rochester, Minnesota, before starting training in Corpus Christi, Texas. There he learned carrier takeoffs and landings on the USS Lexington in the T-28. He and Karen then completed training in Norfolk, Virginia and Patuxent River, Maryland, before he was assigned to VP-10 Squadron in Brunswick, Maine. He flew P2V Neptune and P3 Orion aircraft to hunt Russian subs in the Arctic and the North Atlantic. Jim loved nothing more than to tell his kids, grandkids and friends his many Navy stories of his travels to Keflavik (Iceland), Rota (Spain), Norway, Bermuda, the Azores and others. His daughter Jill (Rux) was born in December 1966, in Staten Island, New York, right before Jim went on deployment to Iceland.
Jim left the active service in 1969, to return to Minnesota and start his new job as an airline pilot with Northwest Airlines. This was short-lived, as Northwest announced massive pilot layoffs early 1970, and Jim lost his job. Karen was pregnant, so Jim put his Navy training to good use driving a bus for Metro Transit, while he went back to school to get his degree as a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. Another of his favorite stories was that he borrowed 10 cents from one of his riders while he stopped the bus in route to call the hospital to find out Karen had given birth to their son, James (legend goes that all on the bus applauded when they heard the news) in September of 1970.
After graduating from vet school and working at another veterinary hospital for two years, Jim opened Northbrook Animal Hospital in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, where he continued to accumulate great stories for his family and friends. Jim and Karen moved to Glenwood, Minnesota after Jim retired and sold his practice in 2012.
In Glenwood, Jim kept busy with his hobby farm, where he planted apple and cherry trees, blueberry bushes, grape vines, strawberries, asparagus, rhubarb, cabbage, sweet corn, tomatoes, broccoli, potatoes, onions, beets, cantaloupe, pumpkins, eggplant, peppers and green beans (a favorite of his grandkids). He loved to teach the grandkids about gardening and never tired of giving or getting rides with them around the farm in the Kubota UTV.
Jim was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2020 and moved to an assisted living facility in 2023. He passed away on Sunday, May 4, 2025 at the Windmill Ponds memory care facility in Alexandria, Minnesota, with his wife and children by his side.
Jim was the beloved son of the late James Warren II and Margaret (Berge) Warren. He is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, Karen Warren; devoted sister, Jayne Martinsen and her husband, Tom; his daughter, Jill Rux and her children, Max and Taylor and her husband John Lunn; and his son, James Warren and his wife, Sandra Filardo, along with their children, Sara, Amelia, and Jimmy; other relatives and friends.
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