Allan R. Top, age 75 of Hills, Minnesota, peacefully passed away on March 8, 2024, at Tuff Memorial Home in Hills.
A funeral service is at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 13, 2024, at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Hills with Pastor Jason Martens officiating. Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
Visitation was Tuesday, March 12, from 4-7 p.m. with the family present from 5-7 p.m. at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Hills.
Allan R, Top was born at Luverne Municipal Hospital on September 27, 1948, to Hyman and Mae (Ziegahn) Top of Ellsworth, Minnesota. He was baptized at Stateline Presbyterian Church of rural Ellsworth. Allan attended his first year of school at a rural schoolhouse near their farm. From second through twelfth grade, he attended Ellsworth Elementary and High School.
Allan worked a few odd jobs with A. R. Wood, as a farmhand for Stanley Wessels, some road construction, and a truck driver for Lyle Bos. In 1968 Allan was hired by the Hills Telephone Company where he worked for the next 47 years.
On June 21, 1969, Allan married Judith Steiner in Kenneth Lutheran Church. They lived in an apartment in Luverne, Minnesota, for two years and then purchased a home in Hills, Minnesota, where they lived for the next 52 years. They had three children, two boys and a girl.
In 1976 they became members of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Hills, where Allan served as a trustee, head usher, and lay reader for many years. Allan started working for the Hills Telephone Company doing odd jobs. He eventually learned to repair telephones, maintain the switchboard, splice cable, and run the backhoe and digging equipment, and was promoted to manager. After 36 years the telephone company was purchased by Alliance Communications, where he worked until his retirement in 2016.
Allan was a member of the Hills Fire Department and Rescue Squad for 32 years, with 17 of those years serving as fire chief. He retired from the department in 2003. Allan was also a member of the Hills Lions Club, the Hills Community Club, serving some years as president, and served on the Tuff Memorial Home Board of Directors for two terms.
He liked to refinish furniture, do woodworking, fish, hunt with his sons and friends, play lots of golf and mow lawns. He loved being with his children and grandchildren and attended all their activities.
After retirement he did not miss a chance to go to morning coffee with his friends and enjoyed playing pinochle with his friends in the winter.
After his retirement, Allan began working part time for Tony Bosch and Steve Top Farms for spring and fall field work and driving truck. He loved being on the farm again.
On February 15, 2024, Allan moved to the Tuff Memorial Home under hospice care after a brief illness.
Allan is survived by his wife of 54 years, Judy; sons Michael (Melissa), Mark (Erin) of Hills, Minnesota, and a daughter, Kristen (Jason Dubbelde) of Chancellor, South Dakota. He had seven grandchildren: Chantz, Tess, Nate, Norah, Isaiah, Taylor (John Oldenkamp), and Evan; and one great-grandson, Hudson; a sister, Geraldine Sandstede; sisters-in-law, Judy (Tim Helmers), Carol Beck and Irene (Glenn) Crooks; two nieces; four nephews; cousins and friends.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Hyman and Mae Top; brother Billy; brother-in-law James Sandstede; and nephews Danny Sandstede and Jason Crooks.