John Arthur Baerg

John Arthur Baerg age 85, of Butterfield, MN died on January 4, 2024, at New Perspectives Senior Living in Mankato, MN.

Visitation will be on Monday, January 8, 2024 from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the Sturm Funeral Home, Mountain Lake Chapel and will continue on Tuesday from 9:30 am until 10:30 am at the Bethel Mennonite Church, Mountain Lake, MN.

Service will be held at the Bethel Mennonite Church, Mountain Lake, on Tuesday, January 9, 2024 at 10:30 am.

Interment will be at the Mountain Lake City Cemetery in Mountain Lake, Minnesota.

Arrangements are with the Sturm Funeral Home in Mountain Lake.  Online condolences may be left for the family at www.sturmfh.com.

John was born on a farm North of Butterfield Minnesota on April 26, 1938, to John and Elisabeth (Peters) Baerg.  After attending a one room rural schoolhouse through 6th grade, he graduated from Butterfield High School in 1956.  While in High school he won a shoe box full of medals and ribbons for track victories and impressed his future wife by scoring the winning touchdown at the homecoming football game.

Marjorie (Harder) joined John in marriage on August 23, 1957, a union that lasted more than 66 years.  By the age 27 they were parents to four children.  Soon after marriage John and Marjorie spent two years working with the relief mission Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in Pennsylvania.  Returning to the Butterfield area in 1960, John began a career as a farmer with his father, producing crops, grade A milk, along with an assortment of other animals for a diversified farm.  After retiring from farming in 2000, John tended a large garden and gave away a lot of produce to charity and family.

Serving people in various ways was important to John.  He was one of the founding board members of Red Rock Rural Water Association, which supplies water to farms and small towns in nine counties of Southwestern Minnesota.  Later he served as a board member of the National Rural Water Association.  For more than 20 years he served as a first responder and EMT for the St. James ambulance squad.  Along with others, as a board member he helped grow the Minnesota Valley Action Council (MVAC) as an important service organization in South Central Minnesota.

John was elected to the Butterfield-Odin School board, and years later was elected to four terms as a Watonwan County commissioner (1996 to 2012).  During part of this time, he also served as a board member and secretary of the Association of Minnesota counties.   In the 1990s, he was appointed by the Clinton administration to serve on a national committee advising FEMA on policy for disaster procedures regarding rural water systems.  In 2007 he was  appointed by Minnesota Governor Pawlenty to the Rural Health Advisory Committee and in 2011 was appointed Chair of the committee by Governor Dayton.

John is survived by his wife, Marjorie; children, Jerry (Caroline) Baerg, Anita (Steve Vatndal) Baerg-Vatndal, Roger Baerg, and Denise Baerg;  his grandsons,  Jacob Vatndal, Timothy Baerg, Garrett Baerg, David Vatndal, Joshua Baerg, and his two sisters; Gladys Ann (Leslie) Harder and Elsie (Gilbert) Friesen.  Preceding him in death are his parents, John and Elisabeth Baerg.  John was a faithful member and supporter of First Mennonite Church in Mountain Lake.

The family wishes to thank the Mankato staff of New Perspective Assisted Living for their care of John.