Services for William G. Ness
William G. Ness, 85, of River Falls, WI, passed away on December 28, 2023. Bill’s can-do attitude and generous spirit fostered outsized community contributions.
William Ness was born on May 22, 1938, to Lilly and George Ness. Billy as he was known as a boy, grew up on a farm about seven miles northeast of the small community of Gully in northwest Minnesota. On the farm, he helped raise all manner of livestock from chickens to hogs to beef cattle. While working with his dad on the tractors and farm implements, Bill not only mastered some colorful language but developed a sharp mechanical aptitude that would serve him well in his future career in the new snowmobile industry.
Bill’s pursuit of an engineering degree at the University of North Dakota got off to a shaky start when he and a buddy’s surveying measurements were off by a depth of 10 feet. Luckily, he didn’t need to rely on a surveyor’s theodolite to pursue a degree in electrical engineering.
On a double date with two girls from her school, Bill and his friend flipped a coin to see who would sit next to which girl. Fate put Bill in the seat next to a Michigan girl named Henrietta Goulette. Bill fell head over heels for Henrietta (aka Hank) that night and proposed to her on the third date. They were married in Henrietta’s hometown of Iron Mountain on August 13, 1960, and went on to have three sons and two daughters.
In 1960, Bill began his career as an electrical engineer at Remington Rand Univac in St. Paul. In 1961, Lowell Swenson convinced him to move to Thief River Falls, Minnesota, and work as the chief engineer at the Dow Key Company, a coaxial relay manufacturer. In circa 1964, Swenson again talked Bill into making a leap of faith to a startup company called Arctic Cat, which began manufacturing a newfangled contraption called the snowmobile. It turns out that Arctic Cat caught lightning in a bottle, and snowmobiles sold like hotcakes. In 1967, Bill accepted the director of engineering and corporate director positions at Arctic Enterprises. During this time, he filed several patents, and many of Bill’s innovations are still used in snowmobiles today.
Although his instrumental role in bringing back Arctic Cat from Bankruptcy in 1982 was Bill’s proudest “professional accomplishment,” he would repeatedly tell people that the thing that brought him the most pride was his family. Following his semi-retirement (i.e., Bill never really fully retired), he loved spending time with family snowmobiling, farming, boating and hunting.
Bill was preceded in death by parents George and Lilly, sister Norma, infant siblings Janice and Glen, and niece Debbie. He is survived by beloved wife Henrietta; five children Greg (Karyn) Ness, Teresa (Jim) Mattison, Jon Ness, Jeff (Naomi) Ness, Rachel (Scott) Berger; 14 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren; and too many friends to be named here.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. with visitation one hour prior and lunch afterward, Saturday, January 13, 2024, at O’Connell Family Funeral Home, 420 S. Eleventh Street, Hudson, WI 54016.
In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the NW Minnesota Snowmobile Display Center at Peter Engelstad Pioneer Village, 825 Oakland Park Road, PO Box 127, Thief River Falls, MN 56701 or to a charity of your choice.