Ralph Petermeier

Ralph R. Petermeier, age 56, of Moundsview, died Monday, April 4, 2011 at his home in Moundsview, Minnesota.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 9 at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in St. Rosa with Rev. Virgil Petermeier, O.S.C. officiating and Rev. Roger Klassen, O.S.B. concelebrating. Inurnment will be in the parish cemetery at a later date.

Visitation will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday and from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday at the church in St. Rosa. Parish prayers will be at 5 p.m. Friday evening at the church.Ralph Richard Petermeier was born on February 17, 1955 in Melrose, Minnesota to Edwin and Loretta (Sand) Petermeier. He graduated from Melrose High School in 1973. Ralph resided in Moundsview and owned a motorcycle repair shop and then was employed for many years at Ballantine, Inc. He recently was employed by Federal Ammunition in Anoka. Ralph had a wonderful gift of creating various robotic mechanisms while at Ballantine, Inc. He was also a jack-of-all trades as neighbors and friends would bring their broken equipment to him for repair. Ralph enjoyed hunting, motorcycling, snowmobiling, and collecting vintage guns. He was a great inventor of various items.

Survivors include his parents, Edwin and Loretta Petermeier of Melrose; brothers, Rev. Virgil Petermeier of Indonesia and Germain (Annette) Petermeier of Avon; sisters, Bernice (Don) Tackett of Vilonia, Arkansas, Rosie (Jim) Athmann of Melrose, and Irene (Rick) Gruber of Melrose; brother-in-law, Dan (Patty) Groetsch of Albany; and many nieces and nephews.

Ralph was preceded in death by his grandparents, Benedict and Mary (Kemper) Petermeier and Nicholas and Anna (Olberding) Sand; and sister, Kathy Groetsch.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred.

Serving as casket bearers will be Jim Athmann, Dan Groetsch, Don Tackett, Ken Ritter, Larry Hoeschen, and Marvin Hinnenkamp. Cross bearer will be Gavin Petermeier and scripture bearer will be Germain Petermeier. Honorary bearers will be Gary Bruneau, Brenton Isaacson, Dave Petermeier, David Bacs, Jamie Lindahl, Betty Lindahl, Jim Lindahl, John Lindahl, Dennis Leslie, Joe Guy, CJ Hollenkamp, and Chuck Purdie.