Dr. Harold August Christiansen

JACKSON -- Dr. Harold August Christiansen, 89, Jackson, died Thursday, June 7, 2001, at Season's Hospice in Rochester.

He was born May 7, 1912, in International Falls, to Charles and Ellen (Carlson) Christiansen. In 1916, his parents moved to Preston where he graduated from high school in 1930. He received a bachelor's degree in 1938 at the University of Minnesota and a doctor of medicine degree in 1939. He married Gertrude McNelly on Aug. 11, 1939, in Anoka. Following his internship at Minneapolis General Hospital, he spent a year and a half at the Jamestown, N.D. State Hospital in neuropsychiatry. He spent five years in the Army with two years spent overseas with Gen. George Patton's Third Army as a neuropsychiatrist with the 104th Evacuation Hospital. While in the service, he earned the Bronze Star, the American Defense Medal and five Battle Stripes. Following the war, the couple settled in Jackson, where he set up a medical practice. He worked for 33 years in the Jackson health care community, retiring in 1978. He became a resident of Season's Hospice in Rochester in December 2000. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, a member of the Jackson School Board, the Chamber of Commerce, the American Legion and Southwest Minnesota Medical Association.

Survivors include a son, Hal Christiansen, Lincoln City, Ore.; three daughters, Janet McGrath, Northfield, Diane Childs, Mankato, Carolyn Sabatka, Owatonna; five grandchildren; two sisters, Helen Wiger, River Falls, Wis., and Betty Cibuzar, Brainerd.

His wife and an infant daughter, Angela, two sisters, Bernice Pierlee and Eleanor Churchill and a brother, Carl Christiansen, died earlier.

Services are 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at the First Presbyterian Church in Jackson with the Rev. Michael McCallum officiating. Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery in Jackson.

Friends may call from 5-8 p.m. today at the Sathe-Osterberg Funeral Home in Jackson and Tuesday one hour before the service at the church.