Dennis Anderson: Trophy photos define two lives well spent

Ron Risvold and Jeff Fuhrmann didn't know one another, but they shared until their dying days this week at least this: a love of fishing.

Paid obituaries for the two Twin Cities men appeared in Wednesday's Star Tribune, with accompanying photos showing each holding a big fish.

This isn't uncommon in Minnesota. For many who live here, the defining image they wish to be remembered by features them not in a coat or tie, but, oftentimes, wearing jeans and a wrinkled shirt -- and cradling a whopper bass, muskie ...

Or, in Risvold's case, a big northern.

For Fuhrmann, it was a walleye.

Each snapshot captured not only a life spent fishing but, in many ways, an entire life.

"It wasn't hard to choose a photo to go with Ron's obituary," said Sandy Risvold, his wife of 44 years. "I don't know how many copies he made of that photo with that fish. But it was a lot. I just knew it had to be in the paper."

Risvold, a manufacturer's representative, died Monday of lung cancer at age 66.

Fuhrmann, a teacher who had taken early retirement because of his declining health, was 47 when he died of complications of diabetes on Sunday.

Unknown to one another, they had struggled valiantly in recent years against long odds. At one point, Risvold had part of a lung removed, while Fuhrmann -- whose diabetes was first diagnosed when he was 5 -- had two kidney transplants. One was donated by his father's secretary, the other by his sister.

Both Fuhrmann and Risvold had long ago started fishing tournaments. Not, in either case, for fame, glory or money. But for family and friends.

Fuhrmann's was called the BFI, or Big Fish International. It featured outlandishly large trophies and moved annually around the state.

The photo of the northern that accompanied Risvold's obituary was taken the year he won the contest with that fish and another pike weighing a total of almost 33 pounds.

"Ron was my cousin, and we grew up together learning to fish at our grandpa's cabin on Antler Lake," said longtime Twin Cities radio personality Dan Hertsgaard. "In grade school, we wouldn't sleep for a week before school got out, because as soon as it did, we were headed to the cabin."

Said Mike Risvold, Wayzata's chief of police and one of Ron's nine siblings: "When I visited Ron in the hospital on Sunday, I told him I wanted him to bust out of Fairview in time to go to Moe's fishing contest in a few weeks. He smiled and said that would be awesome. We talked about going for the bass and northern before walleye. We're both a little competitive, and I could see the wheels turning. How many categories could we win?"

Risvold's fishing skills included an apparent ability to obscure large sporting expenditures from certain other people in his life. Asked on Thursday whether her husband had a boat, Sandy Risvold said, "Yes, I think it's a kind of bass boat."

Whereas his brother, Steve, described Ron's craft as "a big Ranger with everything on it."

"We have a cabin on Oak Island on Lake of the Woods, and for Jeff, a good day of fishing was when his boat caught 100 walleyes or more," his dad said. "An average day for him was 50 walleyes, and 25 was a disappointment. He released them all, or nearly all.

"And he loved to take people fishing. One year, we had a friend whose son was having trouble. Jeff said, 'Send him up to the lake. I'll take him fishing.' And he did that summer. And it worked out for the boy.

"Everyone liked Jeff."

Everyone liked Risvold, too.

Except fish.

Particularly the northern and the walleye the two held aloft in their life-defining photos.

Services for Fuhrmann are at 11 a.m. Saturday at Dare's Funeral Home in Elk River, with visitation at 10. Risvold's memorial mass is at 11:30 a.m. Friday at All Saints Catholic Church in Lakeville, with visitation at 10:30.