Obituary: For Forest Lake’s Gary Houle, working at the family feed store was about ‘being part of a community’

After a lifetime of working at the family business — Houle’s Feed Store in downtown Forest Lake — Gary Houle could answer pretty much any question a customer might have.

The right feed mixture for someone’s cattle? How to spray a lawn? What kind of birdseed is best? Houle, the store’s longtime general manager, could help.

“He genuinely enjoyed taking the time to explain things and help people understand the why behind them,” said Terry Houle, his youngest son. “I think he got as much enjoyment out of teaching and passing along his knowledge as he did from solving the problem itself.

“That’s what he loved so much about the feed mill. It was more than just running a business. It was the people, the relationships, and being part of a community he cared so much about.”

Houle, 82, died Saturday of complications related to prostate cancer at his daughter Angela Brand’s house — his childhood home — in Forest Lake.

Gary Houle, former co-owner and general manager of Houle's Feed Store in downtown Forest Lake, pictured during the celebration of the mill's centennial in 2016. (Courtesy of Terry Houle) Houle, of Stacy, Minn., and his four siblings — brothers Jim, Jeff and Greg and sister Mary Koski — owned Houle’s Feed Store, which was started as a feed mill by their grandfather E.J. Houle in 1916. In 2020, Gertens Greenhouses and Garden Center purchased Houle’s Feed Store in Forest Lake. It now is Spikes & Houles Feed, Seed & Pet Supply.

“It’s a bittersweet time,” Gary Houle told the Pioneer Press in 2019 when the decision to sell the business was announced. “Our name has been on the building for a long time. It’s hard to think about not coming to work in the morning. My dad worked here until he was 81.”

When it came time to sell the business, Gary Houle, who was born and raised in Forest Lake, wanted to do the right thing for the community, Terry Houle said.

“It was a challenging process, but what mattered most to him was making sure the property would become something meaningful to Forest Lake,” he said. “He didn’t want to see it simply turned into another gas station or commercial development. He really cared about Forest Lake and the people who call it home.”

Houle’s survived for 104 years by adapting to the times, said Robert Houle, Gary’s eldest son. Houle’s also owned and operated a dog food manufacturing plant in Stacy; it was destroyed by fire in 1982.

“I remember very late nights while Dad sat at the mill waiting for corn to dry, conversations about if the mill would survive when the tracks were torn out … and watching the pet food plant go up in smoke,” Robert Houle said. “The switch to a suburban-focused store was, I think, largely led by Dad, who saw it coming and, despite all his training under his father and grandfather in running a mill, understood that grass seed and expensive dog food was going to be the future.”

Church deacon

When he wasn’t working, Gary Houle could be found at the Church of St. Peter in Forest Lake, where he was a lifelong member and served as a deacon for 32 years.

Gary Houle wrote and delivered sermons, taught Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults classes and performed wedding ceremonies. He also was the longtime caretaker of Calvary Cemetery for St. Peter’s, “one of his true joys,” Terry Houle said.

His involvement with St. Peter’s was “transformational for him,” Terry Houle said. “It brought him closer to, obviously, his faith, but it also brought him closer to his family, to his community.”

“The greatest commandment was how he lived his life,” he said. “He worked to ensure his actions ‘(sprang) from love and (had) no other objective than to arrive at love.’ He wanted nothing so much as for others to do the same and for that to bring them the peace it brought him daily.”

Married childhood sweetheart

Gary Houle met Julie Wightman when she moved to Forest Lake Elementary School in the first grade, and “they were seated across from each other,” said Angela Brand, the couple’s younger daughter.

“They just always knew they would be together,” she said. “They had many of the same friends and spent much of their childhood together. As teenagers, they went roller skating together several times a week. Dad said he would slow down when Mom skated with him. They piled in the car for drive-in movies and went to the drive-in diner in Forest Lake. One of their favorite date-night routines was Nankin for dinner, followed by a movie, in Minneapolis. I heard very few stories from either one of them that did not include both of them.”

The couple were married at the Church of St. Peter in 1964. They had four children: Robert, Natalie, Angela and Terry. Along with his wife and children, Houle is survived by seven grandchildren.

A Mass of Christian burial will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, at the Church of St. Peter in Forest Lake, with visitation one hour before the service. Visitation will be 3-7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 21, at Mattson Funeral Home in Forest Lake; a prayer service will be at 7 p.m.

A private interment will take place at a later date at Calvary Cemetery.