John Haag

JOHN HAAG was born to Bernard John and Anne Elizabeth (Kellen) Haag on March 12, 1937 on the family farm in Pipestone County, Minnesota where he was raised. He attended elementary school in Trosky, Minnesota and high school in Pipestone. When his father died from a farming accident in 1951, John quit school and worked on the family farm. On September 22, 1962, he was united in marriage to Sharon Fischer at St. Leo Catholic Church in Pipestone. Following their marriage, they lived on the home farm by Trosky. Farming was John’s love, and he spent his entire life farming. Throughout his working years, he received various awards for farming, including the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce Soil Conservation Award in 1959, the Minneapolis Star and Tribune Conservation Award in 1964, the Minnesota Outstanding Young Farmer Award in 1966 and the Top Barrow at Pork-A-Rama in 1973. John took excellent care of the land and his farmstead and it showed. In 1986, he was in the Farm and Ranch Magazine for the “prettiest place in the country”. In 1993, they moved two blocks away from the farm to their current home. After a short battle with cancer, John died at the Dougherty Hospice House in Sioux Falls, South Dakota on Thursday, April 20, 2017, at the age of 80 years, one month and eight days.

John was a member of St. Leo Catholic Church in Pipestone. He loved to tinker on tractors, and he restored old tractors to use to farm a small plot the way it was done in years past. He enjoyed woodworking and making things for the grandkids. Favorite memories of him include seeing him shoot rabbits out of the bedroom window and skunks off of the porch.

He is lovingly remembered by his wife, Sharon Haag of Pipestone, MN; five children, Michael Haag and his special friend Nancy of Allendale, MI, Patrick (Jodi) Haag of Pipestone, MN, Lisa (Jeff) Baatz of Jasper, MN, Thomas (Stacy) Haag of Pipestone, MN, and Theresa (John) Welu of Milroy, MN; 23 grandchildren, Makayla and Pierce Haag, Cody, Chandler, Christian, Carl, Chelsea, Candace, Caelyn, Chloe, and Cammie Haag, Ethan, Brianna, Emmet, Jordan, Shasta, and Sophia Baatz, Rhylee and Nicholas Haag, Brady Welu, Taylor Mueller, Samantha Welu, and Elijah Welu; nine great-grandchildren, Savannah, Suzannah, Shohannah, Josiah, Jeremiah, Chance, Lincoln, Isaac and Parker; two step-grandchildren, Coltin and Rylan DuPont; and one sister, Cecilia (Richard) Brand of Farmington, MN. He is preceded in death by his parents.

Memorials may be directed to hospice or the charity of your choice.