Arnold Bernell Harmsen (“Arnie”) passed away peacefully at home in Sundance on January 14, 2026, at the age of 89, embraced by family and friends after a brief battle with cancer.

He was born on July 10, 1936, in LaMoure, North Dakota, son of Arnold Bernard Harmsen and Ethel Rosella (Saufley) Harmsen. Known to his family as “Junior,” he grew up in LaMoure and developed an early love of the outdoors around the James River. His father passed away unexpectedly when he was 6 years old, and by age 12 he had taken on various jobs to help support his mother, brothers, and sister. He graduated from LaMoure High School in 1954. He joined the United States Army Reserve in North Dakota when he was 17 and later served in the United States Army at Fort Carson, Colorado and Fort Benning, Georgia. He continued his education at North Dakota State University and then Oregon State University, graduating with a degree in Forestry in January 1962. Having already worked for the agency during the summers of his college years in Oregon and California, he began a full-time career with the United States Forest Service in January 1962. A career of 36 years took him to the Nebraska National Forest in Chadron and Halsey, Nebraska, to the Pine Ridge Job Corps in Chadron, then to the San Juan National Forest in Durango and Pagosa Springs, Colorado, before finally reaching the Black Hills National Forest in Sundance, Wyoming in 1979 from which he ultimately retired in 1994.

He married Joyce E. Blundell of Chadron, Nebraska on June 15,1963. Together, they raised two sons, Brian and Jeff, who will be forever grateful for the knowledge, skills, and love of the outdoors that he fostered in them. Arnie and Joyce adventured in and around Rockport, Texas from 2005 to 2020, where they met many new friends as they escaped to milder winter weather, and where he also enjoyed fishing as well as singing and playing acoustic guitar in jam sessions of authentic country music. One of his favorite songs was Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA.”

Arnie contributed to the communities he lived in as a Cubmaster, as the Fire Chief of the Pagosa Lakes Volunteer Fire Department, and as a board member for the Sundance Senior Center and Sundance Land Use Planning Commission. He was a member of Lions Club International and Kiwanis Club.

Throughout his life, he sought spiritual growth and fellowship as a member of a number of church congregations. He actively attended the Black Hills Cowboy Church at the time of his death.

Arnie is survived by Joyce, his loving wife of 62 years, as well as his younger brother Kenneth of LaMoure, ND. He is also survived by sons Brian, of Cheyenne, and Jeff (Amy) of Casper, and delighted in two granddaughters and one grandson. He was preceded in death by his parents, his older brother William “Bill” Baker Harmsen (Lila), younger sister Audrey Jeanne Harmsen, and by an infant son.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you instead make a donation to the charity of your choice.