Details

Collection Summary
Collection: FND001 - SHSND Foundation - North Dakota Heritage Family Memorial Program
Series: Tribute
Folder: DIG
Item: 272152
Title: Fletcher Poling
Date: 4/29/1937-5/2/2026
Inscription/Marks: 4/29/1937
Summary: Fletcher Poling, 89, of Bismarck, ND, passed away May 2, 2026, at Sanford Hospital. A Mass of Christian burial was held May 8, 2026, at Church of Ascension, Bismarck, with Father Russel Kovash officiating. Cremation has taken place. Inurnment was at St. Mary’s Cemetery. Fletcher was born on April 29, 1937, to Clarence and Kathryn (Rustad) Poling in Williston, ND. He grew up on a farm in northwestern Williams County and attended a rural school at Gladys and high school in Grenora. After high school, he attended Minot State Teachers College on a one-year rural scholarship and then taught at a rural school east of Williston. After returning to college at Minot, he was active in student government and various college activities. He graduated in 1961 with a B.S., majoring in history and minoring in English, and then taught at Watford City, ND, for a year. He joined the International Volunteer Service (IVS) in 1962 and was assigned to Vietnam. He taught English as a Second Language (ESL) at Phan Chu Trinh School in Danang in the northern part of what was then South Vietnam for a year and was later designated as a Province Adviser on loan to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Chuong Thien Province in the delta region of South Vietnam. After completing a two-year tour of duty in Vietnam in 1964, he married Helen (Hedgie) Kelly of Minot, ND, in Tokyo, Japan, on June 6, 1964. Following involvement in the United States Agriculture Census of 1964 in western North Dakota, Fletcher was employed by USAID from 1965 to 1972. He was trained in the Laotian language, as well as in area studies, community development, and counterinsurgency techniques, before being assigned to a duty station in Laos in 1966. During his time there, he returned to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) in Washington, DC, in 1970 for an intensive six-month course in senior economics and commercial studies. He served as a program economist for his final tour in Laos and was engaged in a few studies of the Lao economy, including opium culture, small business operations, and grain trading. Three of their four children were born while Fletcher and Hedgie were in Laos; their fourth child was born after the family returned to Minot in 1972. Fletcher was then employed by Verendrye Electric Cooperative in Velva, North Dakota, as a Community Development Adviser and as the first manager of North Prairie Rural Water Users for two years before beginning a 30-year career with Basin Electric Power Cooperative in Bismarck. He served as a Community Development Adviser, Staff Assistant, and Legislative Assistant during that time. He retired from Basin Electric in April 2005 at age 68. He often reflected that it had been his lifelong hope to be engaged in rural cooperative work, and he felt extremely fortunate to have been part of the rural electric cooperative effort for most of his career. While in Bismarck, Fletcher and Hedgie were active for a few years in helping Laotian and Vietnamese refugee families resettle in North Dakota. They remained in contact with many of these families over the years and considered them part of their extended family. He participated in North Dakota Farmers Union (NDFU) activities for much of his life, beginning at age eight, and valued the role his parents and grandparents played in cooperatives, community, and government. As a teenager, he received the NDFU “Minuteman” speaking award and the “Torchbearer” designation. He was appointed to a North Dakota refugee resettlement committee by Governor Art Link and later by Governor Allen Olson. He received the “Admiral in the North Dakota Mythical Navy” award from Governor Link in recognition of his work in water development with North Prairie and the North Dakota Water Users Association. He was a member of the Economic and Community Development Committee of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) for nearly 20 years and served as a director of the Bismarck-Mandan Red Cross for two years. He is survived by his wife, Hedgie; his children, Laura Huss, Dane (Donna) Poling, Maria (Leon) Delgado, and Michael (Nisha) Poling; and twelve grandchildren, George, Axel, and Batiste Huss, EmmaKay and Fiona Poling, Helena Delgado, Summer and Aya Said, Mohamed and Sophia Poling, and Muna and Kahlil Tajeddine. Fletcher was preceded in death by his parents, Clarence and Kathryn Poling; his brother, Clarence “Chip” Poling; and his sister-in-law, Donna Poling.
Red ID: FND_I_79644 Image ID: 577089 Image Notes: fletcher-poling-6671837

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.

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