{"id":12765,"date":"2022-03-18T17:32:18","date_gmt":"2022-03-18T22:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/?p=12765"},"modified":"2022-03-24T14:09:53","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T19:09:53","slug":"ryan-thomas-jon-helgerson-alaska-formerly-of-elkader-iowa-march-18-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/2022\/03\/ryan-thomas-jon-helgerson-alaska-formerly-of-elkader-iowa-march-18-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Thomas Jon Helgerson, Eagle River, Alaska, formerly of Elkader, Iowa, March 18, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ryan Thomas Jon Helgerson was born the son of Kae Jeanne Helgerson and Gary Helgerson on January 1st<\/sup>, 1990 being the first child to be born in northeast Iowa that year.\u00a0 Ryan was quite a surprise for his family being 16 years younger than older brother Erik and 13 years younger than Joel.\u00a0 He was baptized at Bethany Lutheran Church in Elkader and Confirmed at Norway Lutheran Church in St. Olaf.\u00a0 Ryan graduated from Central High School in Elkader in 2008.\u00a0 While in High School, Ryan competed in wrestling and was an avid Boy Scout earning his Eagle Scout.\u00a0 His Eagle Scout project included the construction and installation of a canoe landing in Elkader.\u00a0 Ryan furthered his education at Iowa State University where he attended for three years.\u00a0 He loved being a member of the ISU Pep and Marching Bands where he played the Baritone.<\/p>\n

After leaving ISU, Ryan started working retail at Cabela\u2019s in Prairie Du Chien, WI.\u00a0 He later became the Customer Service Manager.\u00a0 He worked there for five years before he was able to transfer to the Anchorage, AK Cabela\u2019s store and lived with his brother Joel.\u00a0 While in Alaska, Ryan decided to finish his Bachelor\u2019s Degree he had started at ISU graduating from the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) with a degree in Business Administration with a minor in Finance in 2020.\u00a0 Ryan went on to work as the Customer Service Manager at Wal-Mart for a brief time before becoming the General Manager for the Anchorage Extended Stay hotel.<\/p>\n

When Ryan was not working, he loved the outdoors.\u00a0 Ryan was an avid fisherman with a bit of an addiction to buying lures as his family joked.\u00a0 He loved to play disc golf, chase whitetails and tom turkeys in the hills around northeast Iowa, and pursue the big game animals of Alaska. He was a lifetime member of the Iowa Bow Hunter\u2019s Association. Ryan was an avid sports fan both professional and collegiate level. \u00a0He especially loved following his ISU cyclones.<\/p>\n

Ryan is survived by his mother, Jeanne, and brothers Erik (Janelle) and Joel, as well as his nieces and nephews Nate, Mady, Caleb, and Kara.\u00a0 He is preceded in death by his grandparents Herman and Marian Helgerson, Charles and Winifred Thompson, and father, Gary Helgerson.<\/p>\n

Visitation<\/strong>: 4 to 7 PM on Tuesday, March 29, 2022, at Leonard-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service in Elkader<\/p>\n

Funeral Services<\/strong>: 11:00 AM on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, at Norway Lutheran Church, rural St. Olaf with Rev. Marshall Hahn officiating.<\/p>\n

Inurnment<\/strong>: Norway Lutheran Cemetery, rural St. Olaf.<\/p>\n

Leonard-Grau Funeral Home and Cremation Service is assisting the family.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan Thomas Jon Helgerson was born the son of Kae Jeanne Helgerson and Gary Helgerson on January 1st, 1990 being the first child to be born in northeast Iowa that year.\u00a0 Ryan was quite a surprise for his family being 16 years younger than older brother Erik and 13 years younger than Joel.\u00a0 He was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[316],"class_list":["post-12765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","tag-helgerson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12765"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12780,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12765\/revisions\/12780"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/graufuneralhomes.com\/lab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}