Bruce Smeltzer

A memorial visitation will be held Saturday, Aug. 21, 2010, from 1-5 p.m., at Nelson Funeral Home, Leeds, for Bruce W. Smeltzer, 61, of Leeds, who died Thursday, Aug. 12 at Mercy Hospital in Devils Lake.

Burial will be later in Leeds Lutheran Cemetery.

Bruce was born Jan. 5, 1949, in Devils Lake, a son of Ernest and Emma (Johnson) Smeltzer. He was raised and educated in Leeds, graduating from Leeds High School in 1967. He entered the Army in 1967. He served as a cook-baker in Vietnam and was discharged in 1969, attaining the rank of SP4. He returned to Leeds and worked as a hospital orderly and operating room technician in Rugby. He cared for his parents until their deaths, and then worked for 14 years at Benson County Home Health and Transportation.

He was member of Leeds Lutheran Church and the Robert Tovsrud VFW Post 757 of Harlow, and a former member of the Leeds Fire Department, Leeds Ambulance, and the Leeds Masonic Lodge.

He is survived by his siblings, Vance, Tex, Bob, and David, all of Leeds, and Gail Fish of Butte, Mont.; and other relatives.

He was preceded in death by his parents; grandparents, Morris and Pernella Johnson, and Albert and Anna Smeltzer; a brother, Virgil; and sisters, Ellen Guss, Audrey Olson, and Gloria Launes.

Arrangements by Nelson Funeral Home, Leeds.