Hans Pierce Anderson

Hans Pierce Anderson died after long illness at the age of 84 on July 20, 2022 in La Crosse, WI. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Margaret; his daughters Jennifer (Steven) Anderson-Meger, Lydia (Steve) Anderson, and Mary (Patrick) Dupont; and 8 grandchildren William, Frances, and Henry Meger; Loretta and Irina Anderson; Anthony, Juliet, and Margot Dupont. He is also survived by his older sister Johanna Anderson Ghei of Madison, WI, and her children Kiren, Raman, and Gita and their families.

Hans was born in Red Wing, MN on March 7, 1938, to John and Eugenie Anderson. As a boy, he worked the farm on the Tower View estate, attended Burnside School across Hwy 61, loved drawing, photography, architecture, and the outdoors. When Hans was 11, he moved to Copenhagen with his family when his mother was appointed Ambassador to Denmark. He lived at the embassy for three years, learned to speak Danish, and attended a public school. Returning to Minnesota in 1953, Hans joined Red Wing MN High School as a junior. In the spring of 1954, he asked Peggy Kaehler, then 15, to go to the movies with him. He was the only one in school to call her “Margaret.” Hans attended the University of MN in Minneapolis from 1955 to 1963 when he completed his M.D. When Hans and Margaret were married in August of 1960, Margaret taught high school French and art and danced with the Andahazy Ballet Company.

During Hans’s internship in Psychiatry in Burlington, VT, Jennie was born.  A year later, during Hans’ residency in Rochester, NY, Lydia was born.  Mary was also born in NY, and two weeks later, Hans was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War.  He managed to join the Berry Plan which allowed him to stay in the US, and the family moved to the Great Lakes IL naval base where Hans joined the hospital staff as a Psychiatrist, taking on the mental health care of hundreds of soldiers and veterans moving through the Navy.  After serving two years, the family returned to Rochester NY. His short buzzcut grew out below his shoulders with a matching beard. He bought a Triumph motorcycle. The lyrics and music of Bob Dylan provided an enduring soundtrack. Hans spent more time taking and developing photographs in a darkroom, and ended the decade of the 1960s with both artistry and adventure — and  more importantly, his wife and kids, and meaningful medical career. In 1972, Hans accepted a position at the Gundersen Clinic in La Crosse, WI, where he would practice as a Psychiatrist for the next 27 years. Dr. Anderson treated and cared for the mentally ill for a huge portion of his life. Contrary to the impression of his tall, fierce stride through the halls of the psych ward, he was also known as a doctor with true compassion, rare common sense, and blunt honesty. Times at home and traveling with his family were Hans’s true joy. Summers in cabins on the Gunflint Trail and in Grand Marais MN, simple picnics and drives through coulees and bluffs, spending time with his daughters, telling jokes around the dinner table. And his overarching love and respect for his wife Margaret and her own breadth of art work.

Hans retired in 1999. He spent more time photographing and printing in his darkroom, and continued to produce stunning examples of his art. Hans’ archive of the midwestern landscape and unique portraiture is substantial, authentic, and reflective of his rich, complicated, sometimes painful, truly meaningful life.

Hans wished to thank all of the people in the recovering community over the years, Dr. Mary Bassing, and all of the workers at Benedictine Living Community for their help and kindness during the last two months of his life. Hans will be deeply missed by his wife Margaret and children and grandchildren. But he leaves behind a story of love and survival, and a treasure of photographic brilliance.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the Southern Poverty Law Center or St. Clare Mission.

Memorial services will be held at 12:00 P.M. on Monday, August 1, 2022 at Schumacher-Kish Funeral and Cremation Services; 200 West Ave. S. La Crosse WI. 54601.  Chaplain Christine Isham will officiate.  Burial will follow in Oak Grove Cemetery La Crosse.  Friends may call on the family Monday morning from 11:00 A.M. until the time of services.