Randy Edmond Bergquist

Randy Edmond Bergquist, 53, of Jacksonville, Fla., formerly of Princeton, died in a plane crash on Monday, Oct. 12, United States time, while part of a three-person crew operating a surveillance plane over Afghanistan.

A memorial service was held Oct. 28, in Jacksonville. A second memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Henning.

He was born Oct. 20, 1955, to Edmond and Ruby Bergquist, in Bemidji. He and his family traveled throughout the Mid-West and settled in Princeton in 1969. He attended school at Princeton Public Schools and graduated from Princeton High School in 1974. He was a wrestler and played football when he was in high school. After graduation, he gave up a college wrestling scholarship to go into the U.S. Marines. He served for three years and was a guard at the embassy in Geneva, Switzerland, during the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. He was honorably discharged from the Marine Corps and earned his ratings to be a pilot and flight instructor in Tulsa, Okla. After attaining his license he worked for eight years as a charter pilot and flight instructor in Alexandria, Minn. He met is wife, Pam, in Alexandria and they were married in 1982, at the Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Henning. He was employed for 20 years as a pilot for the U.S. Customs service in Florida. After his retirement, he was employed with Avenge Inc., a Lockheed Martin contractor, which does NATO surveillance missions for the U.S. Army. He enjoyed woodworking and painting. He built furniture for his small quarters while serving in Afghanistan. He also built an activity room for 50 crew members.

He is survived by his wife, Pam of Jacksonville; son, Matt of Raleigh, N.C.; his mother, Ruby Bergquist of Bagley; brother, Mike (Happie) Bergquist of Princeton; sister, Penny Bergquist of Sauk Rapids; nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his father and his sister, Cathy Rae.