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Douglas Wilmer Joosten
February 7, 1929 – September 11, 2025
Douglas Wilmer Joosten passed away peacefully at the age of 96 on September 11, 2025. His long life was filled with devotion to family, service to country, and a curious and inventive spirit that never faded.
Doug’s story began in Grant, Nebraska, where he was born to Wilmyerth and Jacob Joosten on February 7, 1929. His older brother Rig had been born the previous year. Wilmyerth died in 1932 during childbirth and Doug’s only clear remembrance of her was of her getting newly fallen snow and making snow cones. Wilmyerth’s parents Ethel and Walter H Brodbeck raised the boys since his father Jacob was a long-distance truck driver. Doug was not the model student and at 14 years old moved out of the house and quit school to work at the Grant movie theater. During this time, Doug’s passion for flying took hold and he began to also work at the airport where he took flying lessons as payment. In fact, he earned his pilot’s license before his driver’s license—a distinction that didn’t impress the State Sheriff who, when Doug was 15 years old, pulled him over in town and didn’t appreciate Doug’s sense of humor when he showed the officer his flying license.
You can imagine the adventures a teenager might find with an airplane at his disposal, and Doug made the most of those opportunities learning to do acrobatic stunts and performing his skills at county fairs. That sense of invention and daring stayed with him his entire life. During the record Nebraska blizzard of 1949, Doug used his J-3 Piper Cub to fly groceries and hay bales to stranded farmers. Another time, with a 50-mph headwind, he managed to fly backwards over Grant, giving townsfolk quite a show.
Doug enlisted in the Air Force in 1948 and was stationed in Boise, Idaho. In early 1949, Ruth Engel, his hometown sweetheart, took the train to Boise, Idaho and they were married at the courthouse. They had planned to wed later, after Doug finished his basic training, but Ruth decided it was time to get married, arranged the trip and came, a daring move back in those days. They were a perfect match.
Doug and Ruth shared a 66-year marriage grounded in love, a sense of adventure and resilience. They were a great team throughout their life together and Doug insisted that they name their Company R & D Tools, placing his wife’s name before his. Together they raised three children: Stephen, Michael, and Sheila (Schils).
Doug served proudly in the U.S. Air Force, including 18 months in England and a year in Alaska and retired in 1968 in Dayton, Ohio. He then built a career as a locksmith and inventor, famously patenting and marketing the only known tool to pick GM and Ford automotive locks—much to Ford and General Motors’ frustration, and Doug’s delight. The companies would change their locks, and Doug would then change the tool to pick their new locks. He was also a carpenter, boat builder, manufacturer, and lifelong tinkerer. His passion was solving problems, and he was good at it.
In 1979 Doug and Ruth moved west to Albuquerque where Doug retired from locksmithing, and in 2012 they relocated to River Falls, Wisconsin, to be with their daughter, Sheila. Ruth passed in 2015 and in 2024, Doug moved to Shawnee, Oklahoma where his son, Steve, lived. Wherever Doug lived, people would always comment on his inventive spirt and his kindness and humor. Truly, a life well lived.
Douglas is survived by his three children, five grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren, all of whom carry forward his legacy of resilience, ingenuity, problem solving and humor.
Services for family and friends will be held at Bakken-Young in River Falls, Wisconsin on Sunday, October 19, 2025 at 1:00pm. Time at the service will be available for all to share their favorite Doug story. Burial with full Military Honors will be at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis on October 20, 2025 at 10:00am.
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to your choice of these organizations.
Arrangements are with Bakken-Young Funeral & Cremation Services.
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