Wayne Lucas Heyesen

Wayne Lucas Heyesen, aka “Bucka,” thought that 4-1-41 would be a good day to die; a numerically rhythmic, iconic, and ironic date creating an unexpectedly long life span of 90 years, 1 month, 23 days.  Rather, he died on Tuesday, February 6th, 2024 in Manatee County, Florida.  He was born in Los Alamos, NM on Thursday, February 9, 1951.  He actually lived for 72 years, 11 months, 29 days for a grand total of 26,661 days. 

Most of Wayne’s life was spent in Duluth, MN.  His formative years were spent on Duluth’s Park Point where he learned much about how to and how not to live life.  He spent a lot of time in boats and cars on the liquid and frozen water that surrounded Park Point.  Children growing up on Park Point weren’t like other children.  Where else could one, and would one, conceive of and execute a plan to drive a car, on ice, through a wall of flaming Christmas trees, as fast as that car would go, forward, backward, or otherwise, as Wayne and others did some number of times?  Many other odd stories could be told, like “How close can we get this motor boat to the bow of an ore boat entering the Duluth harbor?” Such behavior would follow Wayne into his adult years.

Wayne graduated from Duluth Central High School in 1969.  He soon thereafter spent 2 years, 6 months, 5 days in the US Army, having served in both the US and Vietnam, and was awarded the Bronze Star Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.

After his time in the Army, Wayne returned to Duluth and earned a BS degree in accounting and a CPA certificate.  He was adroit with numbers, which caused him to be of some value to a number of businesses in Duluth.   He was last employed as the Chief Financial Officer for Labovitz Enterprises (Duluth, MN) where he pondered and reported on numbers for 32 years, 8 months, 2 days.

Wayne’s primary adult activity was riding things that had two wheels, whether he or gasoline provided the power.  He rode tens of thousands of miles on both. Surprisingly, his time on two-wheels never gave rise to the need for a doctor – or a lawyer.  Wayne was a curious type, interested in all manner of things; in particular flight, astronomy, dinosaurs and how things worked or were made.  He really enjoyed playing ping pong with a group of men that when together spoke of men things.  The winner of each ping pong session was crowned King Pong.

Wayne served on the Board of Directors of the (then) Duluth Arena Auditorium during the early 1980’s.  Wayne cast the deciding vote to preserve the William A. Irvin ore carrier.  Had he not cast that vote, this vital Duluth asset would have been scrapped and lost forever.

Though Wayne deduced “The Heyesen Theory on Multiplicative Complexity”, he did not gain the fame, recognition, and financial reward that such a discovery should have produced. Please do not ask us to explain it, for we do not have the cerebral brilliance Wayne did.

On Saturday, October 16, 1971, the pulchritudinous Cindy Lou Bondeson became Wayne’s first and only wife.  They were married for 52 years, 3 months, 22 days for a grand total of 19,107 days.  Wayne loved her dearly.  He could not have lived with any other woman.  It’s doubtful that any other woman could have lived with him.

Wayne and Cindy lived most of their lives in Duluth, MN.  In 2021, they relocated to a home in Parrish, FL.  The doormat to this home reads “Welcome to Fun House.”  And fun was had in this house.

Cindy bore Wayne two children; son Jonathon David, and daughter Heather Brooke.  Though they did not grow up on Park Point, they were nonetheless extraordinarily unordinary children.  Daughter Heather bore Wayne and Cindy two grandchildren.  They were also and predictably extraordinarily unordinary.  They were named Kaien James (aka Quake) and Kirien Joy (aka The Crusher). They spent countless hours at “Fun House” flying drones (at each other), throwing darts, playing ping pong, chess, and duck-duck-goose, dancing, boxing, wrestling, marching, and doing pushups, sit-ups, squats, and jumping jacks, among other activities. Son Jon married Kyle Leia in 2014 which brought the addition of another beautiful granddaughter Stella Marais whom he adored and welcomed wholeheartedly as his own. He loved watching her do gymnastics with hundreds of cartwheels in the yard, and cheered her on at many dance recitals. These three kids were the source of enormous pride, enjoyment, happiness and mayhem.

Wayne is survived by wife Cindy; son Jonathon David (Kyle Leia) of Duluth, daughter Heather Brooke (Jeremy David) Carlson of Lakewood Ranch, FL; grandchildren Kaien James Carlson and Kirien Joy Carlson of Lakewood Ranch, FL, and Stella Marais Molina of Duluth; niece Jamie Lee Smith of Springfield, MO; cousin Dianna Wolf of Hinckley, MN and two other cousins.  He is preceded in death by his father Clifford Heyesen, his mother Arlene Welsh, and his brother Brian “Bubba” Heyesen.

Additionally, Wayne had a somewhat handsome, fun, funny, and funky friend and family member named Mark Joseph Elden (also daughter-in-law’s father) - a gregarious and eclectic lifelong Park Pointer – who, legend has it, arrived home after Wayne had filled his diapers with rocks during their first encounter at the end of Park Point sometime in the mid 1950’s.

Some of Wayne’s remains will be interred at the Veterans Cemetery north of Duluth, MN.  Some of Wayne’s remains will be deposited into the waters of Lake Superior.  The location of Wayne’s remaining remains remains a mystery.

Date: March 2nd 

Time: Service at 10am 

Location:  Bayside Community Church East Entrance

Lakewood Ranch Campus

15800 FL-64, Bradenton, FL

Date: June 30th

Time: noon - 4pm 

Location: Lafayette Square Park Point

3016 Minnesota Avenue, Duluth, MN