Stanley Carol Sollie

Dr. Sollie was born in northern Minnesota on 3 November 1932 and grew up on a small farm near Fertile. The farm was in an area which enjoyed neither electricity nor running water. Like all farmers families, he learned early on the value of hard work at whatever level his age and strength would permit. Also, due to being in the depth of the Depression, Stanley learned how to be frugal. As he grew, he became especially fond of horses, and always considered himself a bit of a cowboy. He always had his own horse (usually a retired farm horse) and suspects that he spent more time with horses than with people. His grade school education was at a nearby one room schoolhouse with average attendance of about a dozen students.

Stanley realized that he did not want to be a farmer and at a very young age decided that he wanted instead to be a doctor. He was influenced by observing the local GP (Dr. Kostik), who was always so kind, available, and took care of the entire community. However, while in High School, he also became very interested in music. He enjoyed singing and played several instruments, especially the baritone horn. He then decided that he wanted to be a band director and was designated as "student band director." He had the unique privilege of attending a band camp run by Dr. Frank Simon, a trumpeter who had played with the John Phillip Sousa Band (Sousa died in 1932, the year Stanley was born, so Stanley considered that some type of an omen).

Stan attended Concordia Lutheran College in Moorhead Minnesota for one year majoring in music and played second chair baritone in the Concert Band. During that year he changed his mind again and decided he'd better enjoy music as a hobby and revert to medicine as a career. He completed his pre-med and medical studies at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis where he received his MD degree as well as a BS and BA cum laude. He sang in the select University A Cappella Choir and ushered for the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra.

Dr. Sollie was drafted into the US Army for two years immediately following his internship in Oakland, California. He spent six months at Ft. Leavenworth for on-the-job training in ear, nose and throat. He then served thirteen months in Korea with the First Cavalry Division. There he performed general practice in a dispensary near the DMZ but served for one month as the Acting Division Surgeon of the First Cavalry. He still had the goal of setting up a practice in his beloved Minnesota, so following discharge underwent two additional years of General Practice training at the U of Colorado and the VA Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Stanley enjoyed many hobbies but had to abandon sky-diving due to a neck injury. He continued participating in skiing, bicycling and tennis. He again changed his mind as to a career; for the sake of travel, adventure and patriotism, re-enlisted in the Army to become a Flight Surgeon. He underwent flight training at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida.

Prior to that, however, Dr. Sollie had found the love of his life, Dagny Marking, a fellow Norwegian, Lutheran, music lover and farm girl from near West Salem, Wisconsin. They were married there in June of 1963. They enjoyed fifty years together although their first year of marriage was handicapped by Stan's tour in Viet Nam. There he served with a helicopter unit in the Highlands near Pleiku. He was awarded a Bronze Star and five Air Medals.

He then served for two years as Chief of Aviation Medicine at the Army Primary Helicopter School in Ft. Wolters, Texas followed by a three-year Ophthalmology Residency at Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. There Stan and Dagny were blessed with two wonderful daughters by adoption--Naomi Christine and Elizabeth Ann.

His training in Texas was followed by a four-year tour in Frankfurt Germany. He was awarded the Commendation Medal, promoted to Colonel, and transferred to the Madigan Army Hospital in Tacoma, Washington where he was Chief of Ophthalmology for nine years. Stan's other tours during his twenty-one and a half years in the Army included Taiwan, Ethiopia, Turkey and Italy. After Army retirement Stan had a thirteen-year solo Ophthalmology practice in Tacoma, Washington.

While in Tacoma the Sollies continued to enjoy all forms of classical music and for decades attended every Seattle Opera performance. They travelled extensively, and Stan was happy to have had the opportunity of visiting all seven continents. Stan and Dagny made one around-the-world trip and were thrilled to have flown on the Concorde (Paris to New York) in just over three hours. They were very active in the Lutheran Church and wherever they were would sing in the choir. In addition, Stan sang in Barbershop harmony groups for fifty-eight years--chorus and multiple quartets as well as singing many solos.

Stan and Dagny enjoyed fifty years of married life, though the last twenty-one years were hampered by Dagny's Parkinson's Disease. This necessitated a move from Tacoma to Carlsbad, CA in 2009 for care and proximity to family. Stan prayed that his health would sustain for the duration of her illness. It did. Dagny died in 2013. Both Stanley and Dagny died in peace being assured of eternal salvation in Christ.

Following Dagny’s passing, Stan continued his travel and musical pursuits, focused on writing memoirs of various periods of his life (including growing up on the farm, the challenges of Dagny’s Parkinson’s Disease, and Stan’s time in the military), and took up painting (filling the few remaining empty spots on his walls).

Dr. Sollie was preceded in death by his parents, Hjalmer and Pauline, and by brother Sherman and his twin sister Sylvania Higdem Liebl. He is survived by his daughter Naomi Junge and husband Kurt who reside in Pinckney, MI, daughter Elizabeth Sollie currently residing in Houston, TX, and grandsons Brendon (Allie), Nick and Sam (Bella Amie Millynn) Junge, and several nieces and nephews.

A Celebration of Life Service will be held at 11:00 am on Saturday 11 February 2023 at Beautiful Saviour Lutheran Church at 3030 Valley Street, Carlsbad CA. Visitation will precede the service from 9:30 – 11:00 am. A military burial service will be held at 2:00 pm on Tuesday 14 February 2023 at the Riverside National Cemetery.

Stan expressed the wish that in lieu of flowers memorial gifts be donated to Christian schools at any level of Christian Education. Stan also supported veterans’ organizations as well as Doctors without Borders.

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