Joseph John Dillenburg

Joe graduated from De La Salle High School in 1953, a Christian Brothers School in Chicago, Illinois, and attended the College of St. Mary in Winona, Minnesota, where he met Margaret Anne Campbell, from Willmar, who was attending the College of St. Theresa. After two years of college, Joe joined the Air Force and served at the end of the Korean War as an Air Traffic Controller at Hamilton Air Force Base in Novato, California near San Francisco, and in Daegu, South Korea. During a 10-day leave, Joe married Margaret Anne Campbell at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Willmar, on April 19, 1958. They bought a house in Novato, California and had two children in California, Mary Jo and Peggy, while Joe finished his Air Force Service, worked nights as a hotel business manager and finished classes at the University of San Francisco, attaining a B.S. in Business Administration.

Upon completion of his Air Force Service, Joe and Margaret relocated to Marshall, Minnesota and then Willmar, and during those years, Joe, and Virginia Marie and John were born. Joe & Margaret settled in Willmar specifically to be closer to Margaret’s mother, Mrs. Hazel Campbell and provide a midwestern upbringing for their children. Joe worked as an auditor at a CPA firm with Bob Latham and Tom Eischens, and after discovering a financial fraud during an audit he was conducting, Joe was hired by the Willmar Clinic as its Administrator, when the clinic was just 7 doctors located above the JC Penney store in downtown Willmar. Joe was proud to manage the clinic as it grew over the next twenty years from a small doctor’s office to the Willmar Medical Center with a modern surgery center and several satellite offices in surrounding small towns.

After that, Joe served as a business consultant to other medical and surgical companies in Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Minnesota. He served as Chairman of the Board of Med Centers Health Plan in Minneapolis, at a time when HMOs and employer paid health plans were growing in Minnesota and became the standard for similar health organizations across the country. And, before his retirement, Joe was elected President of the Medical Group Management Association, a nationwide association of business professionals who lead medical group practices in the United States.

During their years in Willmar, Joe and Margaret were avid walkers, up to four miles per day, in all types of Minnesota weather, and spent many happy weekends exploring the state parks through Minnesota and in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and eventually Pennsylvania. Joe was famous for enjoying long car rides, (many without a/c!) and took family and friends on car trips to the Oregon coast, to Arizona, the Berkshire Hills in the fall in Massachusetts and summers on the coast of Maine. Joe and Margaret spent more than 10 summers as boy scout camp volunteers in Northern Minnesota.

After retirement from business, Joe and Margaret moved temporarily to Connecticut and Pennsylvania, doing volunteer work for two different Catholic church schools. After making many friends in Pennsylvania at their last volunteer assignment, they bought a house, joined St. Ann’s Church in Scranton, PA and settled there, just in time to start driving regularly to Washington DC to play with their twin grandsons. Joe and Margaret enjoyed many travel adventures searching the origins of their extended families in Scotland, Germany, Austria, and well into their 70s, they were hiking in Switzerland, and boating along the Amalfi coast in Italy. Many of these vacations included grandsons Michael and Joseph, and Joe was a fantastic and patient grandfather, including on a group pilgrimage to Lourdes, France with two 6-year-olds and a group of friends and relatives.

Joe was active and healthy for all of his 88+ years and was seriously ill for just the two weeks leading up to the day he went to heaven. He was a faithful and devoted church member and head of our family, and he spoke often of being truly saddened in life only by the fact that his parents both died very young and didn’t get to enjoy our family adventures from Willmar and beyond. Margaret’s death ten years ago was his hardest transition, but Joe was stoic and stayed positive despite losing our beautiful Mom’s companionship. During the pandemic, Dad stayed with Peggy and helped care for Joseph and spent many hours checking in on cousins and friends via phone and working on our family tree. He spoke often of how wonderful it will be to someday get to heaven and be with our mom, our sister, Virginia Marie, and his beloved parents again. We are grateful to God for Dad’s long and faithful life, and we know we will see him again in heaven.

He is survived by his brother, Br. Michael Fred Dillenburg, of the Christian Brothers Order, and four children, Mary Jo Dillenburg, Carefree, Arizona, Margaret Anne (Peggy) Dillenburg, of Potomac, Maryland, Joseph John Dillenburg, III, of St. Paul, Minnesota and John Frederick Dillenburg, of Marfa, Texas. Joe is also survived by two beloved grandsons, Joseph Rifka of Potomac, Maryland and Michael Rifka, currently studying in Spain, as well as many dear cousins and lifelong friends.