Janet Olive Thompson Lund

Janet Olive Thompson Lund (90) of Fargo, ND, died August 31, 2025, at Sanford Hospital, Fargo.

Janet Olive Thompson was born in Fisher, MN on January 30, 1935 to Tobois (Tobe) and Josephine (Rud) Thompson. With her older sister Carmen, the young family moved to Hillsboro, ND in time for her first birthday. She attended school there and graduated with the Hillsboro High School class of 1953. In Hillsboro, she was known as a “Tomboy”, a risk taker, and a person always ready for an adventure, which was a trait she maintained all her life. She enrolled that summer at Mayville State Teachers College for the summer session and in the fall joined the Home Economics program at North Dakota Agricultural College, now NDSU, in Fargo ND. During her college days, friends introduced her to a graduate student in agriculture who also had family roots in Hillsboro with whom she dated. This nerdy fellow was named H. Roald Lund,

After graduation in 1956, her spirit of adventure encouraged her to go to Williston, ND during the first oil boom, to teach Home Economics, find a wealthy oil man, and make her fortune. After soon finding the Williston area (and men) somewhat less “romantic” than expected, Janet returned to Fargo and called her former boyfriend (and permanent ag nerd) Roald to pick her up from the train station. On October 5th, 1957, they were married at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Hillsboro by Rev. C. F. Savereide. They made their first home in the NDSU Dakota Hall Dormitory as Roald was the residence manager. Janet commuted to the Enderlin High School for her second year of teaching and made the trip to and from Fargo daily.

Upon Roald's graduation in 1958 with an MS degree in Agronomy, the couple moved to Ft. Benning, Georgia to complete an Army ROTC obligation. A son, Jeffrey, was born there in 1958. They returned to Fargo and Roald started a career at NDSU as Assistant Professor of Agronomy. Janet resumed her teaching career at Agassiz Junior High in 1959. They bought a new home in North Fargo and added another child, Susan, to their family in 1960.

In 1962 her budding family moved to West Lafayette, Indiana where Roald pursued a Ph.D in plant genetics and she taught Home Economics and managed the hot lunch program at the High School in Fowler, IN until Roald’s graduation from Purdue University in 1965. It was here in Indiana they started a lifetime of traveling and camping across this great nation.

Roald returned to the Department of Agronomy faculty and Janet returned to teaching in the Fargo School system. They bought a home on 12th St in North Fargo and added 2 more children, Anders 1966, and Adrian, 1968. All were graduates of Roosevelt Grade School, Ben Franklin Junior High School, Fargo North High School, and NDSU.

Janet was active in PTA, Peace Lutheran programs, and many fund-raising efforts. She organized and led a girls 4-H club for many years and was often a clothing judge at 4-H County fair events. Again, her spirit of adventure and travel was evident in her many visits with Roald to Washington DC. She would visit the Smithsonian Museums, Art Galleries, Government Buildings (Supreme Court, Library Congress, Capitol, White House, National Cathedral, Zoo, the many monuments and Arlington Cemetery.

One of the highlights in her life’s journey was the planning, organization, and execution of an effort to take all of her family at one time for a week-long tour of the Nation’s Capital. She had organized visits to all of her favorite places as a celebration of her 50 years of marriage to Roald. A great gift.

Camping brought the family to Camper’s Point on Pelican Lake near Pelican Rapids, MN. As the years went by she and Roald established a lake home and environment that they named Lundvilla. It was a place of fun, food, relaxation, and conversion of gasoline to yells and screams of delight. She provided arrangements of flowers every summer Sunday to the old Campers Point Chapel on what is now Haugen’s Point Beach.

Her wanderlust and love of travel in a motorhome continued throughout her married years and into retirement at Lundvilla, with winters in Tuscon, Marco Island, and Orange Harbor, Ft. Myers, Fla. She simply loved to travel! In the early years it was to visit Canada, all 50 states, and Puerto Rico. In 2014 she and Roald flew to Bergen Norway, rented a car for two weeks and visited the seven family farms and homes in Norway on the way to Stavanger and the flight home. Also, in travel with friends and Roald, she visited Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Russia, Ireland and during her most loved pastime, Viking Cruises: 2013 The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Estonia, Russia, Finland, and Sweden. 2019 Greece, Crete, Sicily, and Italy. 2020 Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama Canal, and Jamaica.

She and Roald made their home at Lundvilla but retained her membership in the garden and drama sections of the Fargo Fine Arts Club. She would often have a summer luncheon and garden tour of their Pelican Lake Gardens. She also was part of their 2020-2021 centennial celebration planning committee.

In her NDSU years, she was a winner of the “Make It Yourself with Wool” contest, and in her retirement years, she created the Janet Thompson Lund endowment which will benefit the Emily Reynolds Costume Collection in the College of Human Sciences and Education.

In 2023, Roald and Janet sold their lake home and the couple moved to their new home at Touchmark in Fargo where they greatly enjoyed living this final stage of her life. In the end, Janet succumbed to dementia caused by small vessel ischemic disease which progressed rapidly over the last few months of her life. Following a very short hospitalization at Sanford in Fargo, she passed away peacefully in the early morning hours of Sunday, August 31st with Roald, her husband of 68 years, at her bedside.

Janet is also survived by her four children: Jeffrey (Jill) Lund, Susan Black, Anders (Marcia) Lund, Adrian (Jamie) Lund: eight grandchildren Austen Lund, Lucy (Mitch) Mazaheri, Carly (Kal) Larson, Devin (Brenna), Brooks Lund, Mimi Lund, Haakon (Alicia) Lund, Bryson Lund and five great grandchildren: Asher, Eliezer, Chase, Ozzie and Nash.

Janet was preceded in death by her parents Tobe and Josephine, her sister Carmen (Jordan) Horkan, grandson Derrick Yates and granddaughter Ruby Vetta Lund.

Please join the family for a celebration of Janet’s life at Zion Lutheran Church on Franklin Lake in Pelican Rapids, MN at 11:30 AM on Friday September 12th, 2025 with a visitation 1 hour prior to the service and a luncheon following the service at the church hall.

Janet’s cremains will be laid to rest in the Old Riverside Cemetery, Hillsboro ND at a later date.

Blessed Be the life of Janet Olive Thompson Lund

To honor the memory of Janet, please consider making a donation to the Pelican Rapids Food Shelf, https://www.feedingpelican.org/