Del H. Morke

The family of Del Harold Morke is saddened to announce his passing on January 1st, 2025.

Del was a loving son to his father, Fred Morke, and mother, Linda Johnson-Morke, and adoring brother to siblings Adam Less (Brother), Kristen Less (Sister-in-law), Rebekah Less (Sister), Benjamin Anderberg (Brother-in-law), and Charlene Morke (Sister).

Del was born March 1st, 2003 in Duluth, Minnesota. He was baptized at Peace Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hayward, Wisconsin 11 days later on March 12th. Del was raised on a family farm with his older siblings in Cable, Wisconsin before moving to the farm in Minnesota. From a very young age, Del enjoyed spending time on the farm and with nature. When he was only 2 years old, he would spend hours moving dirt in his sandbox with his replica excavating equipment. This passion intensified when he discovered heavy machinery. By 4 years old, he was explaining to adults the difference between skid steers, bulldozers, and backhoes; and he had no issue telling people when they were wrongly identifying a piece of heavy machinery. This confidence continued as he taught himself to read by flipping through heavy equipment auction catalogs, and having mature discussions with his father about which tractors were priced above or below market value.

At the end of his 8th grade year, Del was confirmed in his Christian Faith on May 7th, 2017 at Trinity Lutheran Church and School in St. Francis, Minnesota. In high school, he was a member of the varsity trap team. He was a very precise, meticulous and skilled trap shooter, earning a perfect score of 25 in competition and numerous near-perfect scores of 24. Due to his dedication and consistency, Del qualified to compete at the State-Level competition his senior year. He was awarded his diploma from Cambridge-Isanti High School in 2021.

Throughout Del’s life he looked up to and aimed to emulate his father. This admiration resulted in Del’s decision to enter the Marine Corps right after high school graduation, choosing to skip his high school graduation ceremony and immediately entering boot camp. He wore his Marine Corps uniform with the utmost pride, knowing he was following in his father’s footsteps.

            In the Marine Corps, Del was assigned as heavy equipment operator at Camp Pendleton in California; a task he had spent years preparing for. He excelled and enjoyed learning how to operate new types of heavy equipment. He exceeded expectations in this role which gained attention from his superiors. As a result of his success, he was part of a forward operating marine expeditionary unit, traveling across the globe, spending many weeks in Japan, Korea, Guam, the Philippines, Hawaii and many more locations on the U.S.S. Boxer.

During deployment, he would phone home and proudly inform his mother and father about how he was able to complete his assigned tasks with efficiency and professionalism, even drafting suggestions to his leadership for method improvements. While he may not have known it then, this ambition for operating under maximum efficiency was a clear desire to model his mother, a Quality Control Engineer, who still strives for method improvements years after retiring from her professional Quality Assurance (QA) career.

A memorial service will be held at 3PM with visitation beginning an hour prior at 2PM, Saturday, January 4th, 2025 at the Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church with Reverend Sam Biebert; 32962 Vickers St NE, Cambridge, MN 55008. A live stream of the memorial service can also be found on the Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church Website at www.christcambridge.com.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the charity Beyond The Yellow Ribbon to support local veterans of Isanti County at https://www.beyondtheyellowribbonisanti.org.

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