Howard Rasmussen

Madison/ Portage - Howard K. Rasmussen, age 85, died peacefully at the VA Hospital Hospice Care Unit on Thursday, September 27, 2012. He was the son of Walter and Henrietta (Smith) Rasmussen. He proudly served his country during WWII aboard the U.S.S. Peter H. Burnett in the South Pacific.
He was a graduate of Brooklyn, Wis. High School and the University of Wisconsin.
He was employed at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital for 30 years where he received a Commendation Award for his service to patients as Supervisor of the Pulmonary Function Laboratory, which he helped to develop. He was the co-author of more than twenty scientific papers on Pulmonary Physiology.
He is survived by his wife, Delores; son, Stuart; daughter-in-law, Roberta A. Rasmussen; and sister, Pearl Hockett. He was preceded in death by his son, Dr. Jeffrey L. Rasmussen; his parents; his brother, Oscar; and sisters, Edna and Alice.
During his retirement years he built bluebird houses, monitoring bluebird trails and bringing back the bluebird population in the Saddle Ridge and Portage Country Club areas.
He was a member of Bethel Lutheran Church, the Portage Elks Lodge, the Portage Country Club, the American Legion, N.A.R.F.E., the Bluebird Restoration Society of Wisconsin & North America, and a life member of D.A.V.
The family thanks the staff at Independent Living Trinity Senior Community and the Hospice Care Unit at the Veterans Hospital for their loving care of Howard.