Roland Dietz

Roland F. Dietz

After a steadfast and devoted life, Roland Francis Dietz died on September 16, 2017 at St. Joseph's Hospital, St. Paul, MN. He was a long-time resident of the Stillwater, MN area residing most recently at Oak Ridge Apartments.

Roland was born to Reinhold and Alpha (Olson) Dietz along with his twin brother Robert on November 1, 1932 at Anker Hospital in St. Paul. Six siblings, Betty, Tom, Shirley, Robert, Jim, and Jerry preceded Roland in death.

Roland grew up in the Ft. Snelling area where he attended Sheridan Elementary School. He fondly spoke of running barefoot in the summer while working in the family's large garden, thus saving his $.15 pair of tennis shoes for school days. During all his jobs and tasks in life, he demonstrated tremendous integrity while always being a dependable, loyal, hard-working, and faithful employee including his earliest job as a paper boy. This job afforded him the "splurge" of taking the streetcar to downtown St. Paul on rare occasions.

When the City of St. Paul purchased the family house to re-purpose the entire neighborhood, the family relocated to a farm in Afton, MN. Roland graduated from Stillwater High School in 1950. Following graduation he worked on the Afton farm and also at Olson Trucking Company, which was flooded and rebuilt on the present Cub Food Stillwater location.

In 1952 Roland received an army draft notification informing him to appear in 30 days. His father drove him to his induction in a Model A Ford. Basic Training was at Ft. Riley, Kansas, followed by eight weeks of more thorough training at the same location.

Roland was assigned to combat duty in the Korean War. Many months were spent fighting from fox holes by day and standing guard duty on a hill in the black Korean nights. On extremely short notice, Roland was transferred to Japan, The ride through Korea was on a coal-burning train with 3 car windows completely missing. He often reminisced about the extremely cold trip and how all the passengers were covered in black soot from head-to-toe when they arrived at their destination. After a few more months of military service, a ship at one of Japan's port cities took him home. He was able to come home two weeks early because he had taken no leave from battle. Roland re-acclimated from service in Oakland CA and returned to the Twin Cities. Before leaving Japan, Roland was given the opportunity to serve as an Honor Guard at the Capitol in Washington D.C. Since he did not want to reenlist for three more years, he declined.

Upon returning to the USA, Roland worked again at the family farm in Afton. Eventually Roland and his parents bought another farm property close to Lake Carnellian outside of Stillwater. Roland built a house for his parents on a portion of this property when the remaining Lake Carnellian farm acres sold, and enjoyed living with his parents in this new home.

During this time, Roland worked for 10 years in the skilled trade of plaster work at the Pioneer Building in St. Paul. From his many years of hard farm work, he could handle all the strenuously difficult plastering tasks. Sheet rock eventually replaced plaster in the building trade so at the age of 47, Roland was unemployed. For a brief period, he built furniture at a company in Bayport, MN., and then through a personal connection, he was hired as a custodian for the City of White Bear Lake, MN retiring from that position at 62-years-old.

After his mother's death, Roland lived on North 4th Street in Stillwater for about 40 years. His rent started at $85.00 per month and his electric bill was $2.47/month. Roland also did maintenance and yard work for the owner of the property.

Roland was unfailingly supportive and loyal to family as the years passed. He was genuinely humble and generous to a fault with his family and those he called life's friends. Roland became a man of great faith during his years and rested back peacefully into faith in his death.

Roland is survived by 4 sisters-in-laws and many nieces and nephews.

Cremation has taken place through Bradshaw Celebration of Life Center. A private memorial and committal service is pending