Clinton "Clint" Rierson

Clint Rierson, age 84, of Willmar, passed away Wednesday morning, Jan. 13, at Bethesda Grand in Willmar.

A private family service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 16, at Bethel Lutheran Church in Willmar.  The service can be viewed live-stream on the Bethel Lutheran Church website: www.bethelwillmar.org In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to the Willmar Kiwanis Club, P.O. Box 653, Willmar, MN 56201 or Bethel Lutheran Church, 411 SW Fourth Street, Willmar, MN 56201.  Arrangements are with Peterson Brothers Funeral Home. www.petersonbrothers.com

From Willmar to five printing operations of The Wall Street Journal to the Detroit Free Press, Denver Post, Bergen Record (NJ) and back home to Willmar. That pretty much sums up the professional career of Clint Rierson and places the family lived.

Peter Clinton “Clint” Rierson was born in Willmar to PC and Margaret (Anderson) Rierson April 14, 1936. He was raised on the family farm on the north edge of Kandiyohi, baptized at Vinje Lutheran in Willmar and confirmed at Ebenezer Lutheran in Kandiyohi. Early education included riding his pony to Whittier School in Kandi and later graduating from Willmar High School in 1954. He played a lot of baseball and softball, and rode horseback in parades with his dad during those years. He began working at the West Central Tribune in 1953 before serving in the U.S. Army from 1955-57. He trained at Ft. Knox, KY and then served a year in Germany, taking as many trips in Europe as leave-time allowed.

Following his discharge, he returned to his commercial printing job at the Tribune and married his high school sweetheart, Sharron Setterman of Atwater, in 1960. In 1965, they moved to Brookings, SD where Clint entered SDSU as a 29 year old freshman. Upon earning a BS degree in Printing Management in 1968, his first job was with Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal in Chicago, followed by transfers to Cleveland, St. Louis, MO area, Riverside, CA, and Washington, DC. In 1973, he participated in the first satellite transmission of the paper to various plant sites. From 1977 to 2000, he held the title of VP  Production Director at the Detroit Free Press, Denver Post and The Bergen Record (Hackensack, NJ) and was on the team that constructed new printing plants at each of those locations. It was late in 2003 when they retired back home to Willmar. The saying, ‘You can take the boy out of the country but you can’t take the country out of the boy’ was certainly true with Clint. He bought the family farm and was a good steward of the land.

The Rierson’s had some marvelous traveling which didn’t require their household goods as part of the trip: Mauritania, West Africa to visit their daughter in the Peace Corps, Northern Ireland for her wedding, Denver to visit their son, Scandinavian countries, attending a family reunion in Sweden, and two river cruises down the Rhine and Danube. Summer vacations were anticipated with week-long time with kids and grandkids at different resort locations. Besides travel and sports, Clint had a passion for numbers and served on finance committees or was treasurer of several churches, in addition to the Lutheran Campus Ministry Board at Ridgewater College. Tuesday noon meant Kiwanis lunch and meetings he loved.

He is survived by his wife, Sharron; three children, Joalynn Rierson of New Mexico, Paul (and Gretchen) Rierson of Denver, CO. and Jennifer (and Stephen) McCracken of Chicago, IL. in addition to grandchildren, Parker and Anika Rierson and Henry and Maeve McCracken. Also surviving are his siblings, Ronald Rierson of Mesa, AZ., Marilyn (and Ed) Rundell of St. Peter and Carolyn Leslie of Ft. Collins, CO., as well as many nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his parents, PC and Margaret Rierson.