Wayne Hensche, age 76, of Grand Marais, MN. passed away on November 24, 2024. He was born September 16, 1948, to Ernest and Gertrude Hensche, of a farm family in southern Minnesota. Early years were in a one room schoolhouse, pitching hay bales with cousins and siblings on neighboring dairy farms, savoring homemade bread, glazed dinner rolls, and apple smoked sausage.

The youngest of 4 children, he eventually found the Peace Corps and served 3 ½ years working with west African farmers and their oxen. Many hours were spent with carpenters and blacksmiths crafting affordable tools. The Africans accepted the American Volunteers because they remembered previous famine donated feed sacks labelled “Made in America.”

An engineering degree led to decades of work with the US Forest Service and Cook County as a land/county surveyor. A 250-acre “Lake Wobegon style” survey/citizen petition was completed in the Irish Creek locale along a township line where folks had no idea of long-lost property lines. Folks joked that they now had two outhouses on their property. Wayne enjoyed wildland fire work as a fire scout throughout the US and Haiti. He also volunteered for special service duties with US AID. He and his wife, Karen Evens, helped to survey and map significant points of interest for an Atlantic rainforest reserve in Brazil, now a Brazilian National Park. His fire and/or GIS maps were daily reviewed by some top US brass depending on the situation. During the Bosnia/ Serbia/Herzegovina conflict, the road maps of Kosovo were the second most used digital map during the war, especially for refugee and humanitarian services. Most of his working life, however, was as a quiet country surveyor.

He is preceded in death by his parents, sister Elaine, beloved older relatives and nephew Rich Kanzenbach. He is survived by spouse Karen Evens, sister Leanne Hensche, brother Dennis Hensche, numerous cousins and married in relatives (in-laws Sandy and Tom Blonigen) and his extended USFS and county government work families.

Memorial services will be held at Trinity Lutheran Church on Saturday June 21 10:30 am, followed by a light lunch and visiting. A small Hensche handcarved Martin Luther rose plaque hangs in a corner of the church. In lieu of donations, please consider a contribution to the World Wildlife Fund.

Obituaries for Jean Juliet Nystuen (Anderson) and Bonnie Jean Swanson to be published in next week’s paper.