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Joseph T. Unstad, age 75 of Blair, passed away December 6, 2020 at Memorial Community Hospital in Blair. Visitation will be held Friday, December 11 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM at Campbell Aman Funeral Home.

Private family service will be held with burial in the Blair Cemetery.

Joe was born on November 18, 1945 in Walker, Minnesota the son of Leif and Elizabeth Unstad. Joe graduated from UNO and began teaching in Blair after spending time student teaching in Blair. He loved the Blair community so much he made it his permanent home. Joe taught third and fifth grade and also coached girls’ softball and volleyball. He played softball many years with the Blair Bull Pigs.

Joe is survived by his siblings: Jean Briardy and special friend Bruce Forbes, Ralph (Laurel) Unstad, Phyllis (Larry) Strazdas, and Donald (Jackie) Unstad; along with many nieces, nephews and friends. Memorials may be directed to Joe’s family for later designation.

#2-Posted Friday, December 11, 2020 8:00 am

By Elizabeth A. Elliott - news@enterprisepub.com

Joe Unstad loved kids and tried to make learning fun, according to his friend and former educator Dave Warrick.

He taught for more than 30 years for Blair Community Schools and served as a substitute after.

Unstad died Sunday at age 75.

Unstad's teaching career began in a third-grade classroom in the middle of a semester as the prior teacher left their position at North Primary School. He moved on to teach fifth grade at Central School for the rest of his career.

Unstad had a difficult childhood, which fueled his desire to help those with similar backgrounds, Warrick said.

"He tried to look out for the kids who had a more difficult time," he said.

During retirement, he could be found daily at the Blair Bakery.

"He'd visit with people everywhere he went," Warrick said. "He loved to see former students come in the bakery."

Warrick and Unstad became friends through teaching.

"We both started around the same time and ran all kinds of city recreational programs," he said. "He was the best man at my wedding. We had a long friendship."

Warrick said Unstad liked to share stories — even the ones he shared hundreds of times.

"He never knew a stranger," Warrick said. "He'd talk your leg off and tell you the same stories over and over with each time seeming like the first time. You still laugh and enjoy. He was quite a guy."

Unstad coached several sports including volleyball, basketball and softball.

"He coached a girls softball team and dearly loved coaching them," he said. "He managed our men's softball team and he was known throughout the area as the coach of the Bull Pig softball team."

Warrick said any students Unstad had really loved him.

Sandra Hall was one of his students in the first class he taught.

"Joe was always fun, lighthearted, and made class so much fun," Hall said. "He brought a 45 record player and we students were able to bring our favorite 45s to play during the lunch hour. This was in the late 1960s where we still brought our cold lunch in the character lunch boxes."

Hall said one student in the class was assigned each day to switch out the records.

"When a certain tune comes on the radio to this day I picture that classroom and Joe," she said. "I have more memories of that class than any other."

Long after class, Hall was able to reconnect with Unstad “and share all the memories of our classroom and other memories," she said. "He taught and coached my three children in some way in the Blair schools."

Todd Wick taught with Unstad for more than 20 years and said he was a big advocate for kids in athletics and made kids feel special.

"He had a way of talking to kids and having fun with them and looking at the big picture of life," he said. "He had an even keel with things. He was about education and understanding the whole mindset of developing the entire kid. He played with the kids at recess all the time."

"He had 'brain pills' which were pieces of candy students got if they got a question right," Wick added. "He would toss a football to the person who raised their hand to answer the question. He had a lot of fun with learning and making kids feel important. I'm lucky to have the opportunity to teach with him."

Angie Conety had fond memories of Unstad.

"He was amazing and a fun teacher and made everything entertaining," Conety said. "He subbed for us when I first started back. I have little memory of grade school but whatever he did he stuck in my memory. He was truly one of a kind."

#3 Printed in the Friday, December 18, 2020 Enterprise

Please make the sacrifice

Dear editor,

My cousin Joe Unstad died of COVID-19 on Dec. 6. A popular former teacher in the Blair community, he was the subject of a very nice story on your front page on Dec. 11. Being from another state, I purchased a one-week subscription to this paper so I could read it online.

After reading the story, I flipped through the pages and read other news from your region. You can imagine my disappointment to see that the Blair community was debating any possible mask mandate, and leaning against such measures in a recent poll.

I encourage your community to make the small sacrifices we need today in order to end this pandemic and save lives in the weeks and months to come. We all understand that it's an issue of freedom, but we give up a lot of freedoms in our society to benefit the greater good. We pay taxes, stop at red lights and wear hair nets when working in a kitchen. The list goes on. The safety protocols recommended by doctors to stave off this pandemic are no different.

Signed, Beverly Godfrey, Duluth, Minn.

~~~Obituaries courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings on file in the Blair, Nebraska Public Library~~~

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