Obituary: Allan Lund, business owner and entrepreneur

For Allan Lund, the "American dream" was to own a successful company.

And in 1965, the son of second-generation Norwegian parents did just that.

Lund started Lund International, a company that manufactures various accessories for heavy-duty trucks.

"He was a self-made man," said Nancy Pierro, his daughter.

He also designed a sun visor, now known as the Lund SunVisor, which attaches to the cab of a truck or van.

Lund, who was known to stand off to the side with his hands in his pockets, jingling his change and grinning, died Dec. 5 in Hayward, Wis. He was 84.

When Lund returned from the Korean War, he came home to Ogema, Minn. He met his wife, Lois, at a dance in Detroit Lakes, Minn.

They married in 1954 — a year later. They had five children in seven years.

Pierro remembers her father going to school at what is now Minnesota State University, Moorhead, and in her eulogy she said Lund worked many jobs to provide for his "young family."

Before starting his own company in Coon Rapids, he sold insurance, was a letter carrier and taught for a few years.

"His young life was a mixture of hard work, good fun, few luxuries and limitless opportunities," Pierro said in the eulogy. "Al believed to his last day that we all still live in a land of opportunity."

He traveled often for work, sometimes for days on end.

When the children were younger, Lund would fly his family of seven to visit relatives in northwestern Minnesota. "He once bought an airplane instead of a washer and dryer," Pierro added.

When Pierro was younger, her father would take the children to look for old airplane parts.

Pierro's daughter Kelly Eisinger said her fondest memories of her grandfather included their Saturday morning flights to Detroit Lakes. It was just the two of them, a small airplane, flying over fields and woods.

"He was fascinated," Pierro said.

Lund was a founding member of the Howard Aircraft Foundation and hosted a yearly flight in Hayward.

Allan Lund, the product of "rural America," achieved the American dream, Pierro said.

He is survived by his wife, Lois; brother Bob; children Nancy, Tom, Dan, Jim and Kristen; six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Services have been held.