Adele L. Skoda

Adele Louise Halland Skoda passed away suddenly on May 12, 2024 – Mother’s Day,­ in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Her passing on Mother’s Day was appropriate as her life was dedicated to her children and many others she ‘mothered.’

Born in Hollywood, California to Herman and “Bunny” Halland on February 18, 1940, she led a full and busy life until the very end. She was the great-granddaughter of Martin Hector for whom the Fargo Hector International Airport was named.

The first years of Adele’s life were spent on military bases in California and Texas. Her father was a United States Navy Captain. (Later an attorney and elected Williams County Court judge in Williston, North Dakota). When Herman left the Navy, they returned to Fargo, North Dakota the ancestral home of her mother. Adele graduated high school from Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She attended Mills College for Women in California for two years and then transferred to and graduated from Moorhead State College, now Minnesota State University Moorhead, with a B.A. in History. She spent years substitute teaching before starting her family in 1965 with Charles Paul Skoda, a WDAY/NBC Fargo broadcast journalist she met at “Moorhead State”. They were married 48 years until his passing in 2013. She was a devoted mother to Evelyn “Evie” Skoda, C. Pomeroy “Pom” Skoda and Frederick “Fred” Skoda and raised her family with Paul in Santa Barbara, California. In Santa Barbara she co-founded “Operation Kids,” a non-profit organization that provided free summer education and activities for children. After 10 years the program was taken on by the YMCA.

When Paul’s business led them to Oregon in 1991, Adele became a successful real estate broker. Upon her husband’s death, she returned to her childhood home in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota and has resided there since on property purchased by her great grandfather “J.W.” Smith in 1892. Time in Minnesota was spent with multiple local cousins, friends, her children, their spouses Kristie Skoda (wife of Pom), Shawn Conroy (husband of Evie), Cynthia Skoda (wife of Fred) and her eight beloved grandchildren: Chase Skoda, Clay Skoda, Katherine Skoda, Jocelyn Skoda, Dylan Skoda, Sophia Skoda, Faith Wolfard and...M. Paul Wolfard- all of whom she loved to brag about and spoil.  Adele's favorite child Atticus, her nine year old miniature schnauzer, who has been formally adopted by his older human sister, Evie.

Despite losing her oldest son Pom to an aircraft accident in 2018 and struggling with health issues related to emphysema and congestive heart failure, Adele remained the anchor of her family. Her inner strength, interest and engagement in the world and its burgeoning technology and dedication to her family never wavered. She made gourmet cooking look easy, and loved to cook for others. She read voraciously and kept up with current events around the world. She excelled at maintaining friendships across years and miles. She cared deeply about those she loved and she loved countless people. The phrase “force of nature” aptly described her. She was generous, thoughtful, and did what she set out to do: ensure that her children and grandchildren became educated, independent, inquisitive, caring human beings. She was also hilarious, quick with advice - solicited and otherwise. Some of it great, some of it spectacularly questionable.

Adele will be interned beside her loving husband Paul at a small graveside service with family and immediate friends on July 1, 2024 at Riverside Cemetery in Fargo, North Dakota.

In her memory, in lieu of flowers consider a donation to your local animal shelter, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, or your favorite charity.