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Feb. 13, 1933 -- July 23, 2026
FAIRMONT -- To all who know and fondly remember C. Kent Kislingbury (“Doc”), you are invited to gather in a Celebration of His Life on Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, from 2 to 5 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus, 920 East 10th Street in Fairmont, Minn. There will be a meal provided. This is an opportunity to honor his memory and legacy, and most importantly, to tell the stories and spin the yarns about Kent. Together, we will learn new things about this man that will warm our hearts and most surely cause us to smile and especially laugh. He was such a character in his own way that there will be plenty of funny stories. We, his family, will cherish your remembrances of our father. Your reminiscences provide solace, comfort and strength, and remind us of what is important in life and in relationships. Clyde Kent Kislingbury. He was so much more than an obituary can ever tell or reveal.
Kent was a man of integrity, but not in the matter of his age. So, for the record, he was born on Feb. 13, 1933, in Paullina, Iowa, a very small town in the farmlands of northwest Iowa. His father, Clyde George Kislingbury, was a respected banker, and his mother, Esther Helen (Berger) Kislingbury, started out as a beloved school teacher until taking on motherhood. These good people, and the home life, values and opportunities they provided Kent (and his younger brother Terry –who also became a respected veterinarian) helped him develop his many interests and the many qualities that made him a successful person in life and in his career. He played basketball, baseball and football (“star quarterback”) for the Paullina Panthers, and he graduated with the Paullina Class of 1951.
He attended Iowa State University and graduated in 1955 with a degree in business. It was at ISU that he and Mary Don Blair of Mason City, Iowa, met and fell in love. They were married at the Collegiate Presbyterian Church in Ames on Dec. 17, 1955.
In 1955, he was awarded a Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (NROTC) scholarship. He started his Navy career in Pensacola, Fla. and his first tour was aboard the battleship USS Iowa in 1957. They visited ports in Scotland, Norway, Denmark and Cuba. In Corpus Christi, Texas, he completed Naval Air Training and received “his wings." Kent was part of the U.S. Navy’s Attack Squadron VA-76 "Spirits,” which, depending on the deployment, was attached to several different aircraft carriers, including the USS Intrepid. Dad’s squadron was later assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Lake Champlain, as part of the Air Task Group 182, which was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea with the U.S. Sixth Fleet (1957). After finishing his NROTC commitments to the Navy, and with approximately 40-50 training flights and carrier landings under his belt, Kent decided “doing something else sounded real good!” As he goes on to say, “Mom Kislingbury did not raise a fool, so I quit before I might be killed.” He determined that being a veterinarian seemed like a good choice. Fortunately, he served between the Korean War and the Vietnam War, so he saw no combat.
In the fall of 1960, Kent was accepted to the Veterinary College at Iowa State University. The family lived in student housing –refurbished military metal quonset huts.– in Pammel Court. Mary Don taught kindergarten in Ames for three years while Kent attended vet school. He worked late nights as a janitor and during the summers, he also worked as a general carpenter. He graduated in the spring of 1964 with the second-highest overall score in his graduating class.
After graduation, Kent was hired by Dr David C. Johnson, who had just bought a secondary practice in Fairmont, Minn. He and the family moved to Fairmont in 1964 and they ended up calling it ‘home.' Together, he and Mary Don created a wonderful family life and an idyllic childhood for their three daughters, Mary Sue, Lynn and Kim.
Kent built a remarkable career in Fairmont, Minn. as a veterinarian. His success reflected his strong work ethic, a passion for his vocation, and that he felt a specialness and deep appreciation for the clients he worked with and their families. And as he always said, he had good veterinary partners. Kent was highly respected/regarded in his field. He was known for his leadership and for being an early adopter of technologies (computers, mobile phones, etc) in his veterinary practices, and he was a role model, teacher/educator, mentor, and friend to many. He had many accomplishments and awards in his life. None of us will know them all, because –outside of his hunting and fishing stories– he was truly a humble person, preferring to recognize the contributions of his fellow vet partners and the producers he worked with. Kent embraced every opportunity to learn and to share his knowledge and expertise. He spoke at numerous conferences, wrote articles, and always willingly took time to share his learned experiences with producers and journalists. “Doc” retired in August, 2003 from the Fairmont Vet Clinic.
After his retirement, Kent moved to Monticello, Ill. where he lived with Dr. Kay Lindsey, DVM, his partner for many years. He invested the same amount of energy and commitment and passion to the sports of hunting and fishing as he did to his career. And as his fellow comrades will recount, there was no one who was more competitive than their “buddy” Kent.
With Kay at his bedside, Kent passed away in the Carle Foundation Hospital, Urbana, Ill. Only days earlier his family had been able to be with him, and surround him in their love. He died from injuries and complications caused by a fall down a set of stairs.
Kent is survived by Kay Lindsey (and Marjie, their German Shorthair), Mary Sue Kislingbury and John Pokladnik; Lynn and Bruce Coffey; Kim and Jeff Schieche; and grandchildren Rua Arnold, Blair Aschieris, Erin Coffey, and Amelia, Sophie, Jonathan, Jacob and Emma Schieche. There has been and forever will be only one Clyde Kent Kislingbury in this world. He made sure of that!
We hope you are able to come to Kent’s Celebration of Life. There will be no funeral and no memorial fund, but if you are inclined, contributions in remembrance and honor of him may be donated to causes that you think reflect his spirit. Some suggestions are: Scholarship funds at Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine or the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine; Martin County Conservation Club or Habitat for Humanity.