Gerald “Jerry” Thoreen, 89, St. Cloud

March 11, 1933 - June 3, 2022

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, June 13, 2022, at St. Peter’s Catholic Church for Gerald L. Thoreen, of St. Cloud. Gerald “Jerry” Thoreen, 89, passed away June 3 at St. Benedict’s Center after a series of health reversals that he faced courageously. The Rev. Tom Olson will officiate. Private burial will take place at the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery, Little Falls.

Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. on Sunday, June 12 at Daniel Funeral Home with parish prayers at 6:30 p.m. Visitation will continue after 10 a.m. on Monday at St. Peter’s Catholic Church.

Jerry was born on March 11, 1933 in Minneapolis to Leonard H. and Margaret (Hayes) Thoreen. As a Roosevelt High School student, he was a pole vaulter for the track team. With the help of an ROTC scholarship, he earned undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Minnesota. He married Roxann “Sue” Weiland on August 3, 1957 at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Minneapolis. After serving as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, he practiced law for 55 years, first as an Associate at Palmer and Palmer in Minneapolis, then as a trust officer at the St. Cloud National Bank, and later as a partner in the law firm now known as Quinlivan and Hughes. He was a fellow of the American College Trust and Estate Counsel.

Devoted to the St. Cloud community, he served as president of the Great River Regional Library, the Cathedral High School Foundation, and as chairman of the Board of Directors of Cathedral High School. He served as general counsel of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation and served in church leadership roles.

He is survived by his beloved wife of nearly 65 years, Sue Thoreen; his children, Julie (Phil Birkedal), David (Julie Koshgarian), Sarah, and Michelle; his grandchildren, Clare Birkedal, Donte Wolf (Alexis Wolf), and Henry and Samuel Thoreen; as well as by his faithful four-legged friend, Charley, who brought joy to each day. Jerry is preceded in death by his parents; his infant children, Jennifer, Thomas, and John Thoreen; and his sister, Mary Zell.

Jerry and Sue found pleasure observing Minnesota’s changing seasons and resident songbirds, eagles and deer from the windows of the home they designed and built more than 40 years ago. Likewise, the woods and waves along Lake Superior’s North Shore beckoned often, a place of holy awe and renewal. They instilled in their children a love of reading.

While family was the center of Jerry’s life, he also treasured lifelong friendships from the Minnehaha Falls neighborhood of his youth, Army days in Baltimore and St. Louis, and his 60 years in St. Cloud.

Jerry believed in accumulating experiences rather than objects. A lover of maps, he could recall physical spaces with uncanny detail, from the best route to a restaurant four states away to the numbers of the most desirable hotel rooms in a Canadian hotel overlooking the St. Lawrence River. He enjoyed canoeing and sailing the rivers and lakes of Minnesota with family and friends, and he mixed a great Old Fashioned. He has hoisted anchor and set sail. Godspeed!

In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Gerald Thoreen online or by mail to either Central Minnesota Community Foundation, 101-7th Ave. S., #100, St. Cloud, MN 56301, http://www.communitygiving.org/donate/gerald-thoreen-fund or to Parkinson’s Foundation, 200 SE First Street, Suite 800, Miami, FL 33131, parkinson.org, would be welcomed.