Michael Henry Segar

Michael Henry Segar of Bonita Springs, Florida, passed away peacefully on Sunday, February 26, 2023, with his wife Karen, daughter Emily and son Michael Thomas (Tom) by his side. He was 76 years old, led a full and happy life with integrity, and was deeply loved by his family and friends. Mike was born August 23, 1946, to Dellin and Helen Segar of Wells, Minnesota, where he grew up with his brother, Tom. He took tremendous pride in his hometown and enjoyed telling stories about his adventures growing up in Wells. Whether cruising Main Street on Friday nights, spending time with friends, or helping his Dad at Segar’s Mobil Service Station, Mike had great stories he loved to share about his youth. For several weeks each summer, he would stay with his cousins on their farm in Austin. Mike loved his cousins and everything about farm life, including the chores and under-aged driving. His granddaughters were particularly fond of his more mischievous stories, like when his Mom sent Mike and his brother Tom to Iowa to smuggle bootlegged cases of Oleo margarine (illegal in Minnesota at that time) back into Minnesota for Easter. Mike graduated from Wells High School in 1964. Mike attended two years at Mankato State University, and in 1966 he and Karen McGill were married in Wells. They raised their two children, Emily and Tom, in the Anoka, Minnesota area. Mike was devoted to his family and worked incredibly hard to build a wonderful life for them, beginning as a young delivery truck driver and finally retiring as a Regional Manager for an industrial foundry supply company. Mike was exceptionally good at his job as a salesman, but he viewed work only as a means to an end. He lived for his time with his family, especially family vacations, which he would begin diligently planning right after the Holidays every year. He was always excited when new brochures would come in the mail from the many chambers of commerce he wrote to. Those trips are seared into the memories of his kids not because of where they went, but because these trips were when he seemed happiest and most relaxed -- spending extended family time together with just the four of them. Mike loved to fish. He was always most excited when either Tom or Emily would catch one, no matter what the size. They spend countless hours on lakes, with Mike making up silly songs that he would sing to the fish, trying to convince them to bite on Tom’s hook. He was always joking that this might be the day they finally catch “that big elusive Eel Pout”. Thankfully, they never did. He loved Sunday evenings, which were Homemade Pizza Night for about the last 40 years. He loved playing with his kids and was especially delighted in teaching them to play basketball. Mike was proud to have been on the Wells basketball team when they went to the State Championships in 1963. Em and Tom were never quite that good, but a thousand hilarious games of Horse or Pig championship tournaments happened in the Segar driveway, often going on long after sunset. Mike loved Emily and Tom’s closest friends, and always asked for updates about them and their lives. While his kids were growing up, Mike was, hands-down, the “coolest” Dad any of their friends had ever met. While most of their friends’ parents listened to 50’s, country, or classical music, Mike would greet their friends wearing his KQRS tee shirt. With his album collection including bands like Fleetwood Mac, Heart, Pat Benatar, and Boston, Emily, and Tom were the envy of a lot of teenage friends. But he also enjoyed singing in the church choir at the United Methodist Church in Anoka, and was a founding member of the “South Street Boys”, a men’s choral group – the name was his idea. Mike lived in an industrial sales world but had the heart of a farmer. He loved growing things and became a master gardener, making his garden larger each year until there wasn’t any more space to till. Mike didn’t just put seeds in the ground – his gardens were a visual work of art, meticulously planned over the winter, when the basement was converted into a greenhouse with hundreds of seedlings. He didn’t just think through things like plant height and sunlight – he thought through the placement of plants by color, and how they would be complimentary, even framing the garden like a painting with flowers. If he was home, there was never a weed in sight. If he was on a business trip, there were last-minute moments of panic when Emily and Tom finally got around to doing the weeding they had been assigned. Mike also loved to create things with his hands, and eventually discovered his talent for woodworking. Like everything else, he threw himself into learning all that he could and perfecting his craft. If a woodworking shop could also be a visual work of art, his was. He was fastidiously organized and took pride in taking care of his tools and everything he owned. He built beautiful furniture, clocks, and anything he thought a loved one might need that he could create. When he and Karen moved to Florida, he turned a small utility shed into a tiny shop. He loved spending time crafting small pieces like breadboards, trivets, candle holders, and things that had practical use and giving them as gifts or donating to fundraisers. Mike was a wonderful father and took personal pride in every accomplishment that Emily and Tom ever achieved, including marrying the people they did, whom he loved dearly. When his son-in-law, Tadd, was quoted or written about in a news article, Tadd usually learned about it first from Mike, who read 3 newspapers front to back daily. He considered his daughter-in-law, Michelle, to be smarter and more trustworthy than any of his physicians and trusted her implicitly with all of his medical decisions; she frequently had to remind him that she was a Pharmacist, not a physician. Mike was a fantastic grandpa to his four granddaughters, Kate and Stella Segar and Madeline and Hannah Johnson. His and Karen’s best times together were at the cabin at Big Sandy Lake, when Tom and Emily’s families would all gather together many weekends over the summer, or when the girls would remain behind to spend time with Grandma and Grandpa alone. He adored his girls. He built things for them, he was always looking for ways to help them, and constantly worried about their well-being when there was absolutely nothing to worry about. There was no sound in life that he loved more in life than the sound of the four girls laughing together. Mike was a big man with a giant heart. He was strong, clever, and highly intelligent. He took an interest in everyone he met, and loved to ask questions about their lives and hear their stories – which must have made more than a few wait staff fall behind in delivering food to other tables. Together with Karen, Mike lived out his retirement precisely like a person should -- doing the things he loved most, with and for the people he loved most; his immediate family, his closest Wells high school friends, and dear friends he made at Southern Pines in Bonita Springs, Florida. Mike is survived and will be deeply missed by his wife Karen Ann Segar, daughter Emily Marie Segar-Johnson and son-in-law Tadd Johnson, son Michael Thomas Segar and daughter-in-law Michelle Modrijan, granddaughters Madeline Johnson, Kate Segar, Hannah Johnson, and Stella Segar; and cousins, many nieces and nephews, and dear friends. A small private gathering will be held this summer in Minnesota to celebrate his life. In lieu of flowers or gifts, please spread a little kindness today. That’s what Mike would want.

Michael Henry Segar

August 23, 1946 - February 26, 2023