Raymond Albert (Ray) Kleinow was called to his eternal home on April 29, 2022, at his home in Burnsville, Minnesota, surrounded by his family after a courageous battle with pancreatic cancer. Funeral services will be 11:00am, Wednesday, May 4, 2022, at East Sveadahl Lutheran Church, rural St. James, with Rev. Mandy France officiating. Burial will follow at West Sveadahl Lutheran Cemetery, rural St. James, with Military Honors provided by the St. James Veterans Honor Guard. Visitation will be at the church on Wednesday beginning at 9:30am until service time. Ray Kleinow was born on June 15, 1936, at his parents' home in Selma Township, Comfrey, Cottonwood County, Minnesota to the late Albert Martin and Elise Hiskaline (Junker) Kleinow. He was baptized and confirmed in the Salem Lutheran Church, Comfrey, Minnesota. He received his early education at the Comfrey Public School followed with a GED in 1958. On June 8, 1957, Ray was united in marriage to Delores L. Anderson at the West Sveadahl Lutheran Church in Sveadahl, Minnesota. This marriage was blessed with three children, Michael, Debra and Joal. Following Ray's service at Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi, they made their home in Burnsville, Minnesota. They enjoyed many family road trips and camping trips together, and they visited many of the U.S. states, including Alaska and Hawaii, and Canada. Ray and Dee also made two trips to Sweden and Germany where they connected with a number of their distant relatives and many genealogy friends. Being raised on his parents farm, Ray enjoyed many outdoor activities, but mechanical and electronic devices were his passion. In 1953, he enrolled in a correspondence course from DeForest Technical Institute in Radio, TV and Electronics. This helped him to receive the training he wanted in the U.S. Air Force in Airborne Radar Maintenance. This training led to a career in the computer field at Control Data Corporation, where he was an instructor of computer maintenance. He was assigned to two main frame computer design teams, and later he was a program manager of several military projects within the Government Systems Division. The project he enjoyed the most (over 10 years) was being a program manager of the Phoenix computer which controlled the missiles on the F-14 Tomcat. (If you've seen the movie "Top Gun", then yes, its that system). After retiring, Ray enjoyed studying and researching his family history and visiting the ancestral villages of the Kleinow and Junker lines in Germany. He was a volunteer research helper at the Bloomington LDS Family History Center. He was also active with the Minnesota Genealogical Society and the Germanic Genealogical Society, and he was a founding member of the Ostfriesen Genealogical Society of America. He helped Dee in the Swedish Genealogical Society of Minnesota by team-teaching a Swedish Genealogy Workshop at the American Swedish Institute for 19 years, retiring in 2019. Ray was proud of his heritage, but his pride and joy was his family. Ray is survived by his wife, DeLores: his children, Michael (Penny) Kleinow and their children John (Jenna) Kleinow, Katie Kleinow, and Thomas Kleinow; Debra (Brent) Jass; Joal (Lisa) Kleinow and his children Kristina Kleinow, Joey (Brianna) Kleinow and Gabby Kleinow, plus four step-grandchildren, Kayla (Jordan) Currie, Linnea (Jake) Kluver, Blake (Kelley) Asbury, and Alexa Asbury, and eight step-great-grandchildren; two brothers, Lawrence and Richard (Lise); a sister, Edna (Orval) Curry; a brother-in-law, LeRoy (Marion) Anderson; and many nieces, nephews and other relatives. He was preceded in death by his parents, Albert M. and Elise H. (Junker) Kleinow; his wife's parents, J. Walter and Esther O. L. (Carlson) Anderson; two sisters, Betty (Borchardt) Johnson and Phyllis Roehl; three sisters-in-law, Shirley Kleinow, Beatrice Kleinow, and Marie Kleinow; and two brothers-in-law, Giles Roehl and Floyd Johnson. Visitation 1 9:30 am - 11:00 am Wednesday, May 4, 2022 East Sveadahl Lutheran Church 30187 710th Avenue Saint James, Minnesota, United States 56081 Service Information 11:00 am Wednesday, May 4, 2022 East Sveadahl Lutheran Church 30187 710th Avenue Saint James, Minnesota, United States 56081 Interment Information West Sveadahl Lutheran Cemetery North of Hwy 30 on Sveadahl Road. St. James, Minnesota, United States 56081
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