Upside Down Under: A life well lived...

As I write this article, the family of Jim Hillestad was preparing for his funeral that actually took place the afternoon of Oct. 9. Normally this weekly article doesn’t focus on something like the death of someone or their funeral. It’s most often the opposite of that and is geared toward optimism, but in this case, I feel compelled to recognize Mr. Hillestad in this forum.

Jim was no ordinary individual for a lot of reasons, most notably he was 104 years old when he passed away on Oct. 2.

Secondly, he was a World War II veteran, was proud of his service in the Southwest Asia theater in the 1940s and was in involved in some extraordinary missions in the war against the Japanese.

Following a stint in the Civilian Conservation Corps, Jim went to Burma, now called Myanmar, to fight against Imperial Japan. While there he was among the first people in the U.S. Army to be involved in some cutting-edge technology called radar.

He talked often about his time in Burma and how radar was a game changer for the U.S. military as it allowed American pilots to fly during poor weather and navigate around mountains, something that previously wasn’t possible.

In addition, he said in an interview that when he was in school in the early 1930s – think about that, the early ’30s – he read books about Burma and wondered if he would ever go there and by the time he was a young adult, he actually did. The circumstances weren’t what he had hoped, but he was there nonetheless.

Third, he operated an antique dealership in Kenmare for many years, and while most of us are stunned when we hear of the many years he was involved in antiques, that was just one of the things he did during his long and productive life.

It also needs to be noted that Jim Hillestad was a likeable guy. In his later years, Kenmare residents would see him downtown, sitting in front of the post office on a sunny day, greeting people as they went in or came out of the post office.

Jim drove a black Ford Ranger, and people would associate that vehicle with him until he was in his late 90s. Most of us “had” that memory of him, but not being one to sit around and do nothing, he got behind his walker and slowly made his way the roughly three blocks downtown to be part of the community every day that he could.

I met Jim Hillestad in 2014, shortly after I started my editor position at The Kenmare News. He was always cordial and kind of jolly and would always strike up a conversation.

And storied as his life has been, one thing many people didn’t know about him is that he was an avid bird watcher. If he wasn’t in the downtown square in Kenmare. He was most likely outside his home, sitting on the front steps watching birds in the nearby trees.

Living past 100 is becoming more commonplace among North Dakota residents. In fact, at last check, there were approximately 260 residents past 100. They all deserve their accolades because living that long is pretty special.

In Jim’s case, he was Kenmare’s oldest resident and most likely had experienced and forgotten more than most of us have seen or been taught. He was the last man in the Last Man’s Club, a group of World War II veterans who frequently got together after the war to share their thoughts and memories of a pivotal time in American history.

Jim’s wife Sylvia, his teenage sweetheart, died several years ago. He leaves three children: Terri, who lives in Australia, Debbie in Arizona, and son Kelly who lives in Kenmare, as well as several grandchildren and a foster daughter Maxine of Florida.

It’s incredible to think about all of the things that someone that age has seen and done in 104 years. The Great Depression, the war, space travel, eradication of polio, cellular telephones and many other accomplishments.

But most striking to me, however, was what he told me during an interview when he turned 100 in April 2020. He said often times his family would go to the neighbor’s farm to see a contraption that could “pluck” music out of thin air. It was a radio, and he was 5 years old in 1925 when he first experienced it. Radio became commercially available the year he was born, 1920.