Marion Sustad, spouse of the late Covenant minister Orville Sustad, passed away in Westminster, Colorado, on November 16, 2025. She was 99.
Marion Ann Torrell was born April 9, 1926, to parents Ben and Judy Torell in Pomeroy, Iowa. Marion was the youngest sibling to older sister Marjorie and brother Robert. She graduated from high school in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1943. She went on attend North Park College in Chicago where she met her sweetheart and forever best friend, Orville Sustad. They married at First Covenant Church of Omaha on September 29, 1950.
Marion and Orville served Covenant churches in Garyton, Indiana; Northridge and San Jose, California; Sioux City, Iowa; and Arvada, Colorado. Upon Orville’s retirement from First Covenant Church in San Jose, the couple moved back to Arvada, where they enjoyed time with their seven grandchildren and spent their winters in Arizona.
Marion and Orville loved to camp and travel. They had great memories of camping across the country when their boys were young and used their camper trailer to enjoy retirement camping in Loveland and Estes Park, Colorado. The Torell family reunion brought Marion and her siblings’ families together in Colorado from 1989 to 2012.
Marion was a church secretary, family historian, gifted writer, and talented pianist. On her last day of life, she spent the afternoon playing for a service and enjoyed dinner with friends. During her decades at Covenant Living of Colorado, Marion held prayer meetings, Rummikub games, and many conversations around her dining room table with dear friends. She was a positive, present, and supportive grandma who loved and blessed her grandchildren with Swedish traditions,
biblical blessings, smiles, hugs, and piano sings in her living room. They all loved the Swedish potato sausage, creamy potatoes, and the syrup cookies and peanut butter squares that filled her cookie tin. She taught them all dominoes, took them swimming and camping, showed up at weddings, and held great-grandbabies, the eldest of which is now 19.
Marion was preceded in death by her husband, Orville, on January 16, 2005.
She is survived by her son Mark Sustad (Lynn), seven grandchildren, their spouses, and many great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at Smith Chapel at Covenant Living of Colorado on December 22, 2025, at 10 a.m. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be sent to World Vision.
Peace be to her memory.
