Joe Hootman

Joallan (Joe) Hootman, age 87, died on Sunday, August 18, 2024, at Valley Senior Living on Columbia in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 

He was born on March 16, 1937 in Canton, Missouri to Joe C and Margaret Mae (McHatton) Hootman. He was baptized at Canton Christian Church.

 He studied at Culver-Stockton College and graduated with a B.S. from the Missouri University of Science and Technology. He earned his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University. 

He met Rosalie (Haeder) Hootman at Iowa State, and they wed on June 27, 1965. They had two children, Joseph Paul and Janine Kay. 

They were active members of Immanuel Lutheran Church, where he served as an elder and participated in small groups to study the Bible, build friendships, and grow in vocational service to others.

 His public calling for twenty-six years was as a professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of North Dakota. There he won the Engineering School's Outstanding Teaching Award on three separate occasions and launched many students into further study and professional contributions.

 From 1987-1990, he served as Editor in Chief of IEEE Micro, an academic journal of the IEEE Computer Society. His final field of research focused on how fuzzy logic could solve inter-microprocessor communication problems which could not be defined clearly. 

After the death of his wife Rosalie from cancer at age 54, he married LaVonne (Kleven) Russell on March 8, 1997. They spent many happy days at a cabin on Ottertail Lake and, after retiring, enjoyed traveling internationally to Norway, Turkey, and Italy.

 They both served actively in the Gideons ministry providing Bibles to both those who want them and those who might not yet know they need them.

 He was predeceased by his parents, his wife Rosalie in 1995, and his wife LaVonne in 2019. He is survived by his sister, Marg Coker-Nelson; his children, Joe Hootman and Janine Wilke; his stepson, Erik Russell; and six grandchildren: Samuel Hootman, Susannah (Hootman) Trunick, Sarah (Sadie) Hootman, Austin Wilke, Rowan Hootman, and Noah Wilke.

 Visitation will be held at Amundsen Funeral Home in Grand Forks from 5-7pm on Wednesday, August 21, concluding with a prayer service at 7pm. A funeral will be held at 10:30am on Thursday, August 22 at Immanuel Lutheran Church, 1710 S. Cherry Street in Grand Forks. After the service, both a graveside committal and a reception will begin.

 In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to Immanuel Lutheran Church of Grand Forks at https://immanuelgf.org or The Gideons International at https://www.sendtheword.org.