Silpala, Mauno age 76, of Golden Valley, died 10/14/21 in a tragic accident. Mauno was born in Finland. He came to MN as a college student and stayed. Later he spent many years living abroad working for the United Nations, with UNRWA and UNOMIG in Vienna, Jerusalem, Damascus, Beirut, Gaza, and Sukhumi. He retired to the US and enjoyed supporting many humanitarian interests. He visited Finland often. Survived by wife of 10 years, Elaine; children, Siiri (Hung) Doan and Markus (Tricia) Silpala; grandchildren, Alex Doan, Aurora and Audrey Silpala; brothers-in-law, Toivo (Annelie) Sõber, and Taavi (Gale) Sõber; nieces, Valerie Volk-Sõber and Päivi (Hannu) Silpala-Hyvönen; nephew, Paul (Krystal) Sõber;step-children, Melissa (Ron) Moore, Katie (Dan) Brouillard, and Jamie (Annette) Wainio; grandchildren, Meghan, Gabe, Garrett, Spencer, Evie, and Russ Moore; and Dylan, Jack, and Taylor Brouillard; sister-in-law Mollie (Jerry) Nugent and brother-in-law, Paul Conant; many relatives in Finland & Estonia; and friends around the world. He was preceded in death by wife of 40 years, Helle; parents, Benjam & Hilma Silpala; brother, Raimo Silpala; and sister, Elsa Silpala. Celebration of Life will be on Mon. Oct. 25, 2021, 10AM Visitation, 11AM Service, Zion Lutheran Church, 1601 S 4th Ave, Anoka, MN. Interment 2PM, Lakewood Cemetery, 3600 Hennepin Ave, Mpls. In lieu of flowers the family requests memorials to Bright Stars of Bethlehem or ELCA World Hunger. Thurston-Lindberg Funeral Home Anoka, 763-421-0220

Dear Family, Friends and Colleagues, It is with great regret, pain and sorrow that I send this message of grief at the death of my husband Mauno Silpala. My dear Mauno was at our little lake lot in Minnesota playing Finnish woodsman as he so loved to do. We talked the evening prior as we shared our ups and downs from the day and said our nightly prayers together. He said that he was planning to get up early for breakfast at a favorite restaurant in Alexandria, MN. After parking and plugging in his electric hybrid car, he started across a busy road. He was in the crosswalk where the authorities believe that he saw the SUV coming and tried to get out of the way. He died upon impact. It has been a terrible shock and loss on so many levels at home and around the world.

A celebration of his life will be held this coming Monday, October 25th at 11:00 am with visitation at 10:00. Should you be interested in joining the family electronically the worship service will be broadcast in the following ways:

Links to view service - https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86176500635?pwd=Y0xVam9za0RheDB6d3Yxd0RrS3Q0UT09

or via church live feed - https://youtu.be/P9vu-FbicpE

M auno Silpala was born in Kuusjärvi , Finland on March 15, 1945 to a Karelian family recently displaced by the war from Lake Ladoga in what had been eastern Finland. His family had been fishermen and traders in Karelia. Now refugees within Finland, they were given land to become farmers. He grew up on a farm near the village of Tervo in central Finland. His first language was Karelian. His second language was Finnish.

Mauno's determination, sense of adventure, curiosity, and keen interest in learning were evident at an early age. After completing elementary school, most boys in this rural part of Finland joined their families working on the family farm. Mauno had other ideas. He wanted to go to middle school, which meant traveling to another town. It was a big ask for his poor farming family.  But he convinced his family to let him go and he went to live in town as a boarder with another family so he could continue his education. In his teens, Mauno ran away to Helsinki, where he lived with his big sister Elsa, got a job at a bank, and attended evening classes to finish high school. In school he learned Swedish and English, his third and fourth languages.

Mauno's next big adventure took him much farther than Helsinki. While working at the bank he was quickly promoted several times. He reached a point where he was too young to be promoted any higher, but he was getting bored in his job.  When he saw an ad recruiting foreigners to come study in the US, he applied. He received an invitation and a scholarship to attend Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, a place he had never heard of until then. He arrived in the US several months early to work a construction job in North Carolina before school started. Upon arrival in Minnesota Mauno spoke English with a Southern drawl.  At Carleton he was a Russian Studies major. Russian was his fifth language.

Across town at St. Olaf College, Professor Olaf Millert, an Estonian-American who served as faculty advisor to foreign students, wanted Mauno to meet a young local Estonian woman who had just won a scholarship to study in Helsinki.  Millert invited Helle to a barbecue he hosted for foreign students and there, underneath an apple tree, Mauno met his first wife.

Mauno married Helle Sõber, on April 18, 1970 in Minneapolis and they began a life together in Minnesota.  Mauno quickly became an integral part of the Sõber family and the Estonian community in MN.  He learned Estonian and spoke it regularly in the family and at social events.  Some even say he spoke it like a native. Estonian was his sixth language.

Mauno & Helle bought a house in Golden Valley, where they raised their kids, Siiri & Markus, joined Calvary Lutheran Church, and spent weekends camping in NW Wisconsin.  Mauno worked a variety of jobs, many in finance, but also construction rehabbing homes, and for a few years he was the North American distributor for a Swedish wood chipper and boiler company.  That meant road trips across the US and Canada touting machines that turned forestry and agricultural waste products into energy. Looking back, his interest in promoting alternative energy sources predates his enthusiasm for electric vehicles.

In 1988 Mauno began a new adventure when he took a job with the UN in Vienna, Austria as Treasurer of the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA). Living in Vienna, he learned German, of course. Helle, a German teacher, said he was so cute when he spoke German.  He had no fear of making mistakes. He just plunged in, showing warmth and interest in engaging with people even though the language was new to him. People could understand what he was trying to say. He could connect with them.

Mauno originally planned to spend two years with the UN before returning home to Minnesota, but the work really suited him and he couldn't bring himself to leave it behind.  He believed in the UN's mission to resolve conflicts and avoid war, and in UNRWA's mission to improve the lives of Palestinian refugees. Every few years UNRWA rotated its finance officers; over the course of his career he lived in Vienna, Jerusalem, Damascus, Beirut, and Gaza. He got to experience and learn about new places and people and cultures, while doing a job that made a difference in people's lives and aimed to make the world a better place.  Most of his staff were Palestinian. Of course, he learned some spoken Arabic, Palestinian dialect.

In 2005 Mauno retired to Golden Valley, Minnesota, and began building a lake home in Wisconsin. He used his free time to try to make the world a better place. He advocated for clean energy as a member of the city's Environmental Quality Committee and in his everyday life by engaging everyone he encountered in conversation. He volunteered on Habitat for Humanity home builds. He also participated in the local Finnish community, attending cultural events, bringing his grandchildren to Suomi Koulu (Finnish School), serving on the Salolampi (Finnish Summer Camp) Foundation board, Salolampi work weekends, and hosting sauna evenings at his home.

Unfortunately, Helle's health declined. She was diagnosed with ALS and Mauno became her caregiver at the end of her life.

Late in life, Mauno was blessed with another love. On March 16, 2012 Mauno married Pastor Elaine Leone.  He got to be Grandpa to the twelve grandchildren they shared. He enjoyed having them over for pool parties, taking them boating and fishing at the lake, and bringing them to air shows. With Elaine at his side, he continued exploring new parts of the world as well as returning to Finland again and again to visit his sister, Elsa, and other relatives and friends. Mauno and Elaine prayed together daily; even when they were thousands of miles apart, they would call each other and never miss a night of praying together. Mauno loved Elaine tremendously and felt so happy and so lucky to have her to share the last ten years of his life.