Details

Collection Summary
Collection: FND001 - SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Series: Tribute
Folder: DIG
Item: 272029
Title: James A. Lawin
Date: 9/23/1943-12/18/2025
Creator:
Inscription/Marks: 9/23/1943
Summary: James Lawin, 82, Dickinson, ND, passed away peacefully at home on December 18, 2025. A celebration of Jim's life will be held at the ND Veterans Cemetery in the spring. James was born September 23, 1943, in Minneapolis, MN, the son of Arthur and Lorraine (Peterson) Lawin. They moved to Long Prairie, MN, when he was five. He had a great childhood, spending summers at their cottage on Birch Lake, becoming the owner of his own boat with a little Johnson motor at age 8. He graduated from Long Prairie High School in 1961, and received a Naval Academy appointment, graduating in 1965 with an engineering degree. He served aboard ship through 1969, and was honorably discharged as a lieutenant after posts in California, Hawaii, Philippines, Vietnam and Japan. Jim married Mary Sue Reiter in Beach, ND, on June 19, 1971. His only child, Erika, was born in 1974, bringing much joy to his life. He worked the money desk at Northwestern Bank in Minneapolis and attended law school at night until 1976, then moved to Beach to manage the in-laws' department store. He was active in golf league, bowling league, and especially the American Legion Post in Beach. He loved to travel, and planned dozens of incredible vacations for his family. In 1995 they moved to Bismarck where he started a new career as a registered stockbroker. He and Mary moved to Dickinson in 2005 to be nearer to Erika and her new baby and to help his ailing in-laws. He was kind and generous, and enjoyed being the "detail" man. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Mary; his daughter, Erika Snow; grandchildren, Daisy Snow and James Snow of Crane, MT; his sister, Janet Hallquist of Burlison, TN; sisters-in-law, Janet Sykora of St Cloud, MN, and Marsha Reiter of Hatton, ND; and seven nieces and nephews. Jim was preceded in death by his parents, Art and Lorraine Lawin; his in-laws, Hank and Helen Reiter; and his brothers-in-law, William Hallquist, Everett Sykora and Ted Reiter.
Red ID: FND_I_79524 Image ID: 547834 Image Notes: FND001 272029

Collection: FND001 Digitized Images from Collection
Title: SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Date: -

Summary: The North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program is sponsored by the North Dakota Funeral Directors Association. The life stories of deceased North Dakotans are featured in an archvied collection. Current partners in the project are Eastgate Funeral & Cremation Services, Bismarck Evans Funeral Homes, Carrington and New Rockford Everson-Coughlin Funeral Home, Williston Fulkerson Funeral Home, Tioga Fulkerson Funeral Home, Watford City Fulkerson Stevenson Funeral Home, Williston Nero Funeral Home, Bottineau Parkway Funeral Service, Bismarck Springan Stevenson Funeral Home, Stanley Stevenson Funeral Home, Dickinson These funeral homes provide recent obituaries to the Foundation, where staff and volunteers format, edit and archive each memorial. The memorials are posted, and copies are sent to the family for their input and approval. The listing currently features more than 13,000 memorials, and is constantly updated as new memorials and histories are received.

Enter a subject or term in one or both of the “Search” boxes.

  • “Item Detail” searches the Title, Creator and Summary fields of all item-level records.
  • “Collection Number” searches the Collection Number field only and requires an exact match.

The “DETAILS” button provides additional information about an item, as well as the following options:

  • “Collection Summary” details the contents of the entire collection in which the selected item is located.
  • You can print the image and its corresponding details by selecting “Print".
  • “Digitized Images from the Collection” returns a list of all digitized items within that collection (available from the “Collection Summary” screen).

Click on image to expand/zoom the image view.

“Photobook home” takes you back to the main Photobook page where you can start a new search.

“Featured Collections” showcases new and/or popular collections and the digitized images within those collections.

Information on how to order copies is located here.

The collections preserved in the North Dakota State Archives include over a million images. Only a small percentage of these images have been digitized. This photo gallery provides a preview of the images that have been digitized.

For more information on the non-digitized images, please refer to the finding aids found on our website at history.nd.gov, or ask a member of our reference staff for assistance.