Gordon E. Erstad; Pioneer Farmer

Gordon E. Erstad, a longtime Antelope Valley wheat and alfalfa farmer, has died at his home in Lancaster. He was 84.

Erstad died Tuesday of cancer, said his wife, Frances Erstad of Lancaster.

Born in East Grand Forks, Minn., Erstad grew up on a wheat farm in North Dakota. He came to California in the early 1930s and worked as a welder in Taft, spending his weekends farming wheat in Lancaster. During World War II, he gave up his welding job to work full time as a sharecropper, growing wheat for the war effort. Later, he also grew alfalfa, which was harvested for its seed. He retired from farming about 10 years ago.

He had been a Westside Union School District board member, a vice president of the Los Angeles Farm Bureau and had been active with the Gorman Sheriff’s Posse. Erstad was a member of Al Malaikah Masonic Temple, the Elks Lodge in Lancaster and the Rancheros Visitadores.

In the 1960s, Erstad raised quarter horses. As a member of the High Desert Mule Assn., he and his wife hosted an annual three-day meet at their 200-acre ranch for the past nine years.

Besides his wife of 54 years, Erstad is survived by his daughters Nancy Erstad of Huntington Beach and Karen Erstad of Beverly Hills, and one granddaughter.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Lake Hughes Presbyterian Church, 43728 Mountain View Road. A reception at Hunter Ranch on Three Points Road will follow.

His ashes will be scattered in the nearby hills. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Erstad’s name to the Antelope Valley Hospital Medical Center Gift Foundation, the American Cancer Society in Palmdale or the Lake Hughes Presbyterian Church Memorial Fund.