Edmund "Ed" F. Durand

Ed, the child of Louis Durand and Leona Roell, was born on September 19th, 1949 in Faribault, MN and died on Monday, September 21st, 2026.

He grew up in Faribault, MN where he graduated from Faribault Senior High in June 1967. He then went on to graduate with a Certificate of Completion from Jackson Vocational School in November 1968.

Ed was in the US Navy from 1969 to 1973. Most of this was spent serving aboard the USS Truxtrun DLGN-35 (D-destroyer, L-leader, G-guided missile, N-Nuclear powered) as a radarman starting in November of 1970. During his service, he crossed the International Dateline a total of five times. The first was in 1971, and for which he would receive the Golden Dragon award. He also crossed the Equator in 1972 near India, and entered the Tonkin Gulf (Vietnam) three times.

After leaving the service he found a job with his former boss and mentor, Bob Quanbeck. In January 1974 he started as an Architectural draftsman at SMSQ Architects in Northfield, eventually becoming a Project Manager. During this time he enjoyed historic restoration projects and worked on T.B. Sheldon Theatre, Red Wing, MN; Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Indianapolis, IN; and First National Bank, Northfield, MN, to name a few. He would then go on to work at Rafferty Rafferty Tollefson Architects (later becoming RRTL) in October 1994 as a project manager. There he had a chance to work on a wide variety of projects. From post offices and churches to exhibits at the Como Zoo, but his specialty was upper education (college) science labs. His final job was with Cuningham Group as a Specification writer. He wrote over 150 specifications for schools, distilleries, hotels and office buildings.

He married Roxanne Kalina on May 10, 1975. They had two sons, Michel and Douglas, and divorced in June 2005. He cared deeply for his sons and would often show it by being involved in their various activities. Assistant coach for little league teams and becoming a Scoutmaster were a few of the ways he showed he cared.

His hobbies were Genealogy, which he started in 1978 looking for information on his Durand side. He researched Durand, Berneche, Dauphinais, Dubeau on the Durand side and Roell, Steinbauer, Heiker,and Pirkl on the Roell side. Of course he has information on all of these families and more. His other hobby was reading and collecting mystery and Science Fiction books.

He is survived by his two sons, Michel of Eagan and Douglas of Northfield. He was preceded in death by his father (in 1956); his mother (in 1995); grandparents on both sides; uncles, aunts, and cousins on both sides.

Services will be held at Bethel Lutheran Church, 1321 North Ave, Northfield, MN 55057, at 11am on Friday, October 23 with visitation on Thursday, October 22 from 5-7pm. Interment of ashes will be at St. Lawrence Cemetery, Faribault, MN.