FEATURED RESIDENT-JUNE 2009-DON MISHLER
FEATURED RESIDENT-JUNE 2009-DON MISHLER
It is doubtful that New Dosey Township would be governed and operated in the fine fashion that it is without the work that is done by Don Mishler. As a town board supervisor, the grader operator, the township mechanic and the “go-to “guy in general, Don is responsible for most of the “nuts & bolts”, day by day functions of our township.
Donald Darold Mishler was born on his father’s birthday, February 26, 1939, to Joe and Lydia Mishler. He was the middle child of three sons. His parents lived in Cloverton at the time and he was born in the Pine City Hospital. Don attended the first 8 grades of school at the Cloverton School, then went to high school in Sandstone, graduating in 1957.
Upon graduating from high school, he worked for one year on the Great Lakes as a seaman, then, in 1958, he worked for a few months at the only job he was ever fired from. That’s right, Mr. Work Ethic himself was actually fired from a job. It wasn’t his fault- he was in a minor accident on his construction job in Sherbourne, Minnesota, caused by an inattentive driver in another vehicle. But company policy was that one accident of any kind was a fireable offense.
In 1959, Don went to work as a lead-man setting up machines for Cornelius Company (later IMI Cornelius) in Anoka County. He worked there for 42 years until his retirement in 2001.
Don married Adeline Oehrlein in 1959 and they had 2 children Diana and Brian and they adopted a third child Jason in 1970. Don and Adeline had another child who only lived for four hours. Diana works for Anoka County, while Brian works in construction and Jason is at Central Sand Blasting Co. Don and Adeline were divorced in 1980.
A young widow named Marlene Bowman had worked with Don at Cornelius for 12 years and in the early 1980s, a relationship was sparked. Don and Marlene were married in 1982. Marlene had a daughter Pam who joined the family. Tragedy stuck the Mishler family in 1984 when Pam’s daughter Nicole at age 6 was murdered, and again, in 2004 when Diana’s daughter Cassie,18, died in a car accident.
Don and Marlene had been coming back to Cloverton for many years as weekenders in the cabin he owned next to his mom Lydia’s farm. They worked on the cabin continuously to turn it into the beautiful home it is today. They moved up here permanently after Don retired in 2001.
Don has been a town board supervisor for 8 years. He is the Board delegate to the Tri-Township Disposal District meetings. As mentioned before, he is also the town mechanic and grades the roads.
As a member of the Board of Directors for the East Pine County Wanderers, our senior group, he is also active in senior activities. He is also a member of the Seven-County Senior Federation and the Duxbury Volunteer Fire Department.
As much as Don enjoys hunting, fishing and four-wheeling, he is an even more avid fan of both the Discovery and the History Channels.
All of the work done by Don Mishler for our community is very much appreciated.