Al Sannerud, generous Anoka County volunteer, dies at 97

Friends of Al Sannerud got into the habit of taking out their checkbooks whenever crossing paths with him, because they knew he was always fundraising for a cause — or several.

"I've described him as a very gentle arm-twister," said his friend Dave Bonthuis of Anoka.

Sannerud, 97, a retired accountant who was recognized at the 2018 Minnesota State Fair as an "Outstanding Senior Citizen" for giving back to communities in Anoka County, died of lymphoma June 28 at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids.

He was still living on the family's Ham Lake farm with his wife of 70 years, Betty, where they had raised four children and where their grandchildren grew up going on tractor rides.

Sannerud's volunteer work began during his early years at Faith Lutheran Church in Coon Rapids with an orphanage in the Philippines, the Children's Shelter of Cebu. He became a founding member of the Blaine-Ham Lake Rotary and Free2Be, now known as Cars for Neighbors Inc., which his daughter, Susan Savarese of Ham Lake, said focuses on giving used cars in good working condition to single mothers so they have reliable transportation for work and family.

Sannerud served as executive director of Bikes4Kids, which he organized 10 years ago along with other retirees from Faith Lutheran and the Kiwanis Club to provide restored bikes to children, senior citizens, teens and young adults — some of them in the juvenile justice system, foster care or without homes. He established bike-repair shops in two red barns on the Ham Lake farm, restoring and donating hundreds of bikes.

"Giving them a bike gives them something that is theirs. We are helping them establish they are a good part of society," Sannerud told the Star Tribune in 2013. To date, the nonprofit has donated 2,111 bikes, each paired with a helmet, lock and safety instructions.

He earned a business degree in 1950 at Augsburg College, where he met Betty Moe; they married the following year. He worked for Archer-Daniels-Midland and Glenwood-Inglewood and was business manager for Golden Valley Lutheran College and Mercy Hospital before starting his own accounting firm in Ham Lake in 1974.

Sannerud "was always passionate about helping those that were less fortunate," said Savarese, who runs her father's accounting firm, Sannerud, Savarese & Associates. "He really modeled how to be a good steward with the gifts we're given."

Sannerud was active in many roles at Faith Lutheran, where he served as the church's first congregational president in 1958. Bonthuis said his friend became the church's "best greeter," welcoming all with a warm sense of humor even as his health deteriorated. "He never retired," Bonthuis said. "He retired from being an accountant. But he did not slow down until very recently."

Besides his wife and daughter, Sannerud is survived by sons Robert of Edina, Paul of Winona and James of Grand Marais; brothers Curtis of St. Cloud, Eugene of Granite Falls and G. Peder of St. Francis; seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by an infant son, Daniel, and an infant granddaughter, Kristin.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at Faith Lutheran, 11115 Hanson Blvd., Coon Rapids.