Raymond "Butch" Aberle

Raymond “Butch” Aberle was born to Helen and Sebastian Aberle on March 30th, 1942, at home in Bismarck.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:30 AM on Friday, April 1, 2022, at Spirit of Life Catholic Church, Mandan, ND with Father Brandon Wolf as celebrant. Burial will be at the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery.

Visitation will be held Thursday, March 31, 2022, from 6:00-7:00 PM at Spirit of Life Catholic Church, Mandan, with a Rosary/Parish Vigil at 7:00 PM. Visitation will continue one hour prior to the service on Friday.

The middle child of 15, he celebrated being brother and uncle to so many. He started school at St. Mary’s Catholic School. The family move to Strasburg during the middle of his grade school years. At a very early age he went to work on local farms and hunted and fished to help provide for his family and had a local Friday fish delivery route taking bullheads he caught to different families around town.

After graduating high school, he enlisted in the Army National Guard and served a year of active duty during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In 1963 he met Marge Hurkes, from Hazelton, and they were married in September of 1964. He completed his college degree in Industrial Arts in 1967, graduating from Moorhead State and taught for several years at Mandan High School. During his college and teaching summers he worked for Northern Improvement Construction as an equipment operator.

In 1975 he started Aberle Construction, building homes in the Mandan/Bismarck area and served as the North Dakota Home Builders Association president. He employed brothers and nephews, sharing the skills he had learned from his own dad who he had worked closely with over the years.

In 1981 he transitioned to Northern Improvement fulltime, working across the State until taking on the duties as their repair shop superintendent and retiring as their Equipment Manager in 2006. Northern Improvement was a big part of his life, sharing this work with family and making many friends along the way. In all of his work there was a great sense of pride in the accomplishments, and he never stopped saying, “We built that. We accomplished this.”

Throughout his life hunting, fishing, taking care of his land and snowmobiling and “wrenching” were his hobbies. A diehard Ski-doo loyalist, his shop was home to snowmobile and small engine repair to the end. And these traditions have been passed to his kids and grandkids as “think snow” and a “conservation ethic” permeate his family.

His passion was people. In his own way of humor and honesty, he saw people and cared for them with a sincerity of heart. A firm handshake and infectious laugh, with a glint in his eye, made folks feel seen when they were with him. His love was his family. Sharing 57 years of marriage with Marge, their dedication to one another will always be evident. He instilled in his kids a love of the wild Rockies and his daughter Missy and husband Shane (Kesterke) live in NW Montana with their children: Caleb, Isaac, Luke, Nick, Ben, Isabell, Zander and Claire & husband Jonah (Rosen) and son Boaz. His son Ray (RJ) and his wife Jen (Mattern) live in the Colorado foothills with their children Makabe, Lucille and Josephine.

He is survived by many beloved nieces, nephews, brothers, and sisters.

What he touched, he blessed through his dedication to hard work and his commitment to others.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Anne Carlsen Center or Child's Hope.