Visitation: Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service. 

Service: Funeral Services will begin at 2:00 p.m. Monday, December 22, 2025 at Canton Lutheran Church. 

Service: Funeral Services will begin at 2:00 p.m. Monday, December 22, 2025 at Canton Lutheran Church. 

Richard Lyle Lunder, a devoted husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle and friend, passed away peacefully surrounded by his loving daughters on December 14 at age 82. Following a courageous 19-month battle with pancreatic cancer, he entered eternal rest and is now joyfully reunited in Heaven with Sharon, his beloved wife and heavenly angel.

Richard and his identical twin brother, Dennis, were born on July 1,1943, to Arne and Avis (Rikansrud) Lunder at Sioux Valley Hospital in Sioux Falls. They grew up on the family farm six miles north of Canton, SD, attended a rural, one-room school, and graduated from Canton High School in 1961. Both attended Augustana College where Richard graduated with a bachelor of science degree in business administration and accounting in 1965.

Expecting to be selected in the military draft, Richard courageously joined the Navy Seabees as they needed workers to construct deep water piers, bridges, Navy berthing camps and airport landing pads in Viet Nam. After Navy Seal survival training in Little Creek, VA and Coronado Island, CA, Richard was sent to Da Dang, Vietnam in May, 1966, to do underwater welding on deep water piers, a critical operation because it was the only location where cargo ships could off load military supplies. After construction was complete, Richard hauled freight and ammunition throughout the country. While “in country” Richard took solace listening to music broadcast on the Armed Forces Network. Two special favorites were the Beach Boys version of “Let Me Go Home” and “How Great Thou Art” sung by Elvis Presley.

While he was in Vietnam, Richard’s mother listed his name in the Mitchell, SD newspaper as a soldier who would like to receive mail. Thus began a correspondence with Sharon Lundberg, a Dakota Wesleyan College student who noted the similarity in their surnames. After he returned to the states they met in person and Richard had found the love of his life. They were married at Trinity Lutheran Church in Platte, SD on August 9, 1969. During their 54 years of marriage, they raised three beautiful and brilliant daughters—Kristi, Kimberly and Kari. Sharon died in 2024.

After his military service, Richard attended graduate school at Mankato State College. Recruited by Montgomery Ward’s management training program, he became a store manager. The young Lunder family moved from Minneapolis to Lafayette, Kankakee, Rockford, and Chicago, IL, but in 1985 returned to Canton, SD so their daughters could go to the same high school where Richard had graduated. Richard and Sharon gave their daughters both independence and guidance in their lives. Every year they took their daughters and their families on a week-long adventure vacation to different parts of the US.

Richard became manager of maintenance for the US Postal Service in Sioux Falls and continued there for 28 years. During this time he joined the Navy Reserves, retiring after 20 years. While in the Reserves, he deployed to the Philippines, Japan, Italy, Hong Kong, China, Hawaii and many bases throughout the US. He received more than 13 honorary medals including four Bronze Stars and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal. While on his Navy deployments, Richard was able to achieve both “highs and lows.” He became a certified navy diver and in 2003 climbed Mount Fuji. While in Yokosuka, Japan, he took sailing lessons and was certified to captain a 30-foot sail boat. In May, 2022, Richard was selected to go on a Mission with Midwest Honor Flight to Washington, DC to visit all the war memorials. He has been a lifelong member of the American Legion and the VFW.

In March, 1998, Richard and Sharon built their dream home on an acreage on the east side of Sioux Falls. The spacious ranch walkout was surrounded with more than 75 trees and a private pond with 30 koi fish and a stream with six waterfalls that Richard developed and maintained for more than 16 years. He and Sharon were proud winners on the Sioux Falls Parade of Ponds for four years.

Richard was a travel’n man. While in Viet Nam, he made many R&R trips, but the most memorable was a month in Norway to meet his relatives. A descendant of four great grandparents who emigrated from Norway, he was proud of his 100% Norwegian heritage. He joined the Hadeland Lag of America and served on the board of directors for many years. During that time he and Sharon made five trips to Norway to visit the Lunder farm in Hadeland where they came to feel at home. Thanks to a Norwegian friend and historian who arranged farm visits, each time Richard and Sharon went to Norway they were greeted with open arms by members on the family tree.

Richard and Sharon visited five continents, enjoying many guided tours and cruises. They made two mission trips to Nicaragua and also an excursion to the Holy Land. Each summer they enjoyed family time with fishing and boating at their lake home on West Lake Okoboji and celebrating Richard’s birthday and the 4th of July with their daughters and their families. An avid sports fan, Richard has enjoyed watching football, baseball, basketball and tennis games. He loved playing golf with friends and his VA adaptive sports buddies. He also enjoyed playing tennis, especially with Aunt Jane Lunder who was much older, but seemed always to win.

Richard was also a handyman, a skill he learned as a boy from his dad, an inventor who taught him how to weld and fix machinery.

Richard provided in-home caregiving for Sharon during her four-year journey with colon cancer. She spent her last week in the Dougherty Hospice House where she had worked as a hospice nurse for 35 years. Only two months after her death, Richard was diagnosed with cancer and he spent the remainder of 2024 enduring radiation and chemotherapy. After these treatments, he felt better and still had the urge to travel. In January, 2025 he took a bucket list Road Scholar trip for two weeks to Costa Rica where he had an amazing time hiking and going through the cloud and rain forests and jungles to see the wildlife. He has always been an avid naturalist and ecosystem enthusiast.

Richard will be remembered for his service to his country, faith, family and his community. He was a lifetime member of Canton Lutheran Church where his great grandfather Lars Lunder was a charter member with the first church meeting held in his cabin on a homestead six miles north of Canton. From his earliest years, Richard learned from his parents that Sunday school and church were priorities, and perfect attendance was a goal. He cherished knowing that his parents were faith-centered. Both Richard and Sharon served on the church council and were ushers for many years.

Grateful for having shared Richard’s life are his daughters and their families: Kristi and Jeff Paulsen and their children Annika and Aidan; Kimberly and her son Eian; and Kari and David Stone and their children Molly, Arne, Samuel, Fredrick, and Anastasia. Richard is also survived by his twin brother, Dennis and his wife Bonnie, brother Paul, and sister Pamela Lunder and husband Micheal Feeney, and beloved nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Canton Lutheran Restoring Radiance Stained Glass Window Project, Dougherty Hospice House, or Avera Prairie Center.

Funeral Services will begin at 2:00 p.m. Monday, December 22, 2025 at Canton Lutheran Church.  Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service.