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Mark W. Harmsen collapsed suddenly at his job on November 8, 2018, and was taken by ambulance to Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis where the doctors were unable to start the heart beat and pronounced him deceased on November 9, 2018. He was 65 years old.

Mark was born on Feb. 15, 1953 at Atlantic Memorial Hospital in Atlantic, Iowa to his parents Lloyd W. and Jo Ann Abrell Harmsen of Walnut, Iowa and was baptized  when he was five months old and confirmed in 1967 at Zion Lutheran Church in Atlantic, Iowa.  He is a member of Lord of the Lakes Lutheran Church in Forest Lake.

Mark grew up and worked on the family farm until graduating from Walnut High School in 1971. On October 1972 he was married to Pamela Marie Morelock at Zion Lutheran Church in Atlantic, Iowa.  They had three sons, Scott, Gregory and Charles Harmsen.  They were divorced 1979.  In 1982, he married Toni Olson who had two children, Joe and Sara Olson, who he raised as his own children in Minnesota.  They were divorced in 1996.

Mark met the love of his life, Irina Pavola. She eventually came to the United States, and they were married March 1999. They lived together happily at their present home in North Branch until the time of his passing.

Surviving are his wife Irina; his mother Jo Ann Harmsen and brother Matthew Harmsen both of Rio Rancho, NM; five children; Scott Harmsen and wife Cynthia of Nebraska, Joe Olson and wife Rochelle of Lindstrom, Sara Olson of Mora, Gregory Harmsen and wife Tara of Iowa, and Charles Harmsen of Iowa; nine grandchildren, Joseph and Kaleb of Minnesota, twins Jacob and Caleb of Kansas, Chelsea Kohl, Hunter and Brandon Harmsen of Iowa, Stacy and Sean Harmsen of Nebraska, and a host of relatives and friends.  

He was preceded in death by his father, Lloyd W.; all of his grandparents; his uncle Freal Abrell, aunt Madge Abrell, aunt Roberta and her husband Gene Mathiesen.

A Celebration of Life will be held from 5-8 p.m. on Wednesday, December 5, at Grandstrand Funeral Home in North Branch.  Mark will be buried in the Walnut Cemetery at Walnut, Iowa. 

Arrangements are being handled by the Grandstrand Funeral Home in North Branch. Condolences may be expressed online on www.grandstrandfh.com.

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