Al Holmes, 60, died at his home in Brookings, South Dakota, on Thursday, October 23, 2003. A celebration of his life will be held at 2:00 p.m. Sunday at Ascension Lutheran Church in Brookings. His ashes will be scattered on his pheasant farm at a later date. The family will greet friends from 4-8 P.M. Saturday at Eidsness Funeral Home. Al was born on December 26, 1942, in St. Paul, Minnesota, to James and Grace (Nimmer) Holmes. He grew up along the shores of Long Lake in New Brighton, Minnesota. He graduated from Mounds View High School in 1960, earned a B.S. degree in biology from the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 1964 and a Ph.D. in genetics from Kansas State University in 1968. He married Karen Lundmark in 1964 and began what would become a 30-year teaching career in the Science and Math Department at Southwest State University in Marshall, Minnesota, in 1969. Together, he and Karen raised their sons John and Ted enjoying fishing, hunting, canoeing, hockey, and cross-country. In 1995 Al and Karen divorced. On June 22, 1996, he married JoAnn Willgohs and lived the rest of his life in South Dakota. He loved the environmental-friendly practices of South Dakota farmers who plant shelter-belts, leave corn standing over the winter and don't farm fence-post to fence-post. Diagnosed with a brain tumor on the morning of the 1997 duck-hunting opener, Al graciously accepted the limitations imposed on him by the tumor and its treatment. An avid outdoorsman and conservationist, he continued to relish watching, listening to, and providing habitat for wildlife. Left to cherish his memory are his wife JoAnn; children and grandchildren John (Christine Parks), Nathan, and Joren of Newberg, OR, Penny and Gunnar Holmes of Berkeley, MI, Ted (Mary Wolf) of Minneapolis, MN, Lori Mogard (Quentin Kurtz) of Princeton, MN, and Michael Mogard of Brookings; parents, Jim and Grace of Tryon, NC; brothers and their families Don (Lyn) of Vadnais Heights, MN and their children Brian and Camie; Roger of Columbia Heights, MN and his children and grandchildren Emily (Vince), Annika and William Peeler, Katie Holmes, and Erik Holmes; former sister-in-law Jane Holmes of Maple Grove, MN; his first wife, Karen of the Chicago, IL area; his adopted parents-in-law Arlene and Bob Briggs of Canby, MN and a many other in-laws, outlaws, and friends. Al enriched the lives of many people and he was T-U-F-F to the very end. In lieu of flowers, please plant a shelter-belt, a tree, a shrub, a flower, or a vegetable in his honor.