MONTICELLO — Although Merrlyn Seefeldt wasn’t born in Monticello, it is the place where she raised a family and helped to grow a successful business with her partner in industry and life.
It is the place where she served as a faith leader and friend. It is the place she called home for 50 years, where she was involved in the community and beloved by all who knew her.
Monticello is also the place where Merrlyn died on the morning of June 5, and where she is being mourned by family, friends, business associates, her congregation and the many people she left a mark on. And it is the place where she will long be remembered for all of her contributions.
“She was full of life, full of love and full of faith,” said daughter Krista Smith-Larson. “She believed in family, she believed in God and she developed many relationships with people in the community.”
The 85-year-old passed away after an eight-month battle with non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, known as NASH, with services held on June 17-18, including interment at Riverside Cemetery.
She leaves behind a lasting legacy, with the business she helped co-found here in Monticello, Electro Industries Inc., still going strong, along with the mission work and ministry contributions she held so dear continuing on.
But, perhaps most of all, Merrlyn will best be remembered as one half of a loving, unstoppable team, as the wife of her partner in business and life, her beloved husband, Bill Seefeldt, in a marriage that lasted more than 60 years.
“They were such a team that you can’t imagine one without the other,” said Smith-Larson, the second-oldest of the couple’s four children. “And that’s what everybody has been saying, how much of an impact they made and it’s hard to imagine that part of the team is in heaven.”
“She’s been the staple, the stability of the community,” she continued. “My mom was very active in the community, she was part of everything. It’s been very hard to talk about one without the other. I think that is what impacts the community more, because without her, they’re worried about the team.”
The dynamic duo first met in the late 1950s, when both were students at Valparaiso University in Indiana, where Merrlyn was studying to be a deaconess in the Lutheran church.
Bill, the editor of the yearbook, was looking for an assistant, and along came Merrlyn.
“He found that she was very good in her skills, he asked her for help with the yearbook staff and that is when they started their life together,” Smith-Larson said. “They became a team. He’s got the brains, but without her he would have not been able to succeed. They were a perfect team.”
This auspicious meeting would lead to a life-time partnership.
“The unique thing about my parents is they were together 24/7, they did everything together and they complimented each other perfectly,” Smith-Larson said. “And all of that started when he needed help with the yearbook.”
After a few years together, the pair wed in Wisconsin in June of 1962.
Husband Bill recalls what a devoted, doting wife she became, and said Merrlyn was also his best friend.
“She took very good care of me,” he said. “No matter what I needed she made me her priority. Whether it was in business, ministry or family she was my partner in life. She made it her lifetime goal to help me overcome my shortcomings. She knew them all going into our marriage and she spent her life meeting any need that I had. I was her No. 1 priority for over 62 years.”
The couple went out west to start their life together in Santa Clara, Calif., and had four children: Brenda, Krista, John and Mark.
Daughter Smith-Larson said family was of the utmost importance to her mother.
“She was extremely loving,” she said. “There was nothing more important to her than family. When her children came along, there was nothing she loved more than her family.”
After having children, the Seefeldts moved their family to Minnesota for a job opportunity in the early ’70s.
It was here in Monticello where their partnership reached its full potential, with the couple founding the electric heat management company Electro Industries in 1974, pairing Bill’s knowledge of engineering with Merrlyn’s administrative, accounting and people skills.
“My mom did all of his bookkeeping, she was his administrative assistant,” Smith-Larson said. “She was his right-hand woman.”
Their daughter remembers how hard the two worked to build the business.
“Building a company is hard, they had to sacrifice many years to keep the business succeeding,” she said. “They built the business together. She was his assistant and he was the engineer that had the ideas. They worked side by side and they built a very successful business.”
One thing that set them apart in business was their unique form of transportation, a white, three-wheeled trike-style of motorcycle that they became known for.
“They drove it everywhere,” Smith-Larson said. “They took it on every mountain, every valley. It’s gone throughout the entire United States. Even up until her passing, they were riding it. That was what they were known for. They would drive the trike on all their business calls. Customers knew them as Biker Babe and Biker Bill.”
Bill and Merrlyn traveled with their trike across the country visiting countless states, national parks, canyons and mountain passes.
“They just were loving, simple people that could relate to anybody,” she continued. “And they rode that trike around and built a life together.”
The pair was also united in their devotion to church and faith, with a lifelong passion for ministries at the local, national and international levels, particularly Merrlyn, who joined several different church circles in the area.
“She was passionate about serving,” Smith-Larson said. “She served in so many areas.”
Some of the many ministries that Merrlyn led and contributed to include Bible studies, prayer meetings, the local Alpha program, congregational care and, most recently, global missions with an emphasis on Tanzania.
“It’s a big loss for the congregation,” said friend Elane Yettley, of Buffalo, who attended Bridge View Church in Monticello with the Seefeldts. “They were very influential in our missions program. That was their heart. That’s what they did mainly at the church, the missions program, and they built it up to a large global program.”
In addition to serving the Lord in any way she could, Merrlyn was also devoted to her extended family, which includes 13 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
“She raised a great family and she loved our children, grandchildren and great grands — her littles — with her whole heart,” Bill said. “Even taking care of her littles up until her passing. Pretty good for an 85-year-old!”
Smith-Larson recalls the efforts to which her mom would go to get the whole group together, organizing many family activities over the years.
This included a Hearts card tournament, along with several things that paired family with her love of sports, such as football games, a fantasy football league and NCAA bracket challenge.
“Family spreads around, but she always found ways to bring us back together,” she said.
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