Lonnie Cowherd
Lonnie Philip (Phil) Cowherd, 78, White Bear Lake, MN passed away peacefully at home with his immediate family present on December 20, 2025, from complications of lewy body dementia.
Born in Columbia, Kentucky, Phil spent his formative years in Leola, South Dakota but he graduated from Scotland, SD High School due tohis father, a Methodist pastor, being assigned a different church. In high school he excelled in sports, especially track and field and long-distance running. After graduating, he continued to run competitively for Dakota Wesleyan University. He received a BA from Dakota Wesleyan University in 1969, and a Masters in 1971 from South Dakota State University in School Administration and Counseling. After two years teaching high school in South Dakota, he moved his young family to Minnesota where he began his 35-year career with Minnesota State Government Departments of Economic Security and Transportation. His focus was employee development. He spent two years in Washington, DC with the National Highway Institute but returned to spend his last years before retirement overseeing the MN Transportation Dept. Training Center.
He liked to garden, read, travel, visit, collect coins and stamps, play cards and chess, celebrate Christmas, and try new ethnic foods. He was an advocate of lifelong learning and pleased his grandchildren pursued the rigors of college, competitive sports, dance competitions, and his hobby of coin collecting. He was a dependable blood donor for years. Most important, hewas a very good father and husband.
Surviving Phil is his spouse of 58 years, Gwen Schock Cowherd. Four children: Son Alexander (Mei); daughter Melanie (Ed deceased); daughter Manda (Eric) Riebel; and Shanda (Bruce) Gaunt. Eight grandchildren: Sasha and Celia Cowherd, Nikolai and Katrina Dulak, Taylor and Evelyn (Jake Rosario) Gaunt, and Grady and Landon Riebel. Three brothers: Louie (Jean),Larry (Ardys), George (Chris) and numerous nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents: Rev. Robert Louis and Edna (Bault) Cowherd; Gwen’s parents, John and Florence (Mehlhaff) Schock; brother-in-law Stanley Schock; and son-in-law Edward Dulak III.