Rod Toft, a member of the United States Bowling Congress Hall of Fame who won four open championships, died Wednesday after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 79. A St. Paul native who graduated from Johnson High School, Toft was a computer programmer for 3M and he and his wife, Judy, raised their family in Lake Elmo. He won his first major championship as part of the University of Minnesota’s bowling team in 1966. Rod Toft (Courtesy Erika Fisher) “He was super honest and incredibly humble,” his daughter, Erika, said Thursday. “In bowling, there’s doubles, singles and team play. My dad knew that team play was five players, but if he created one team of five, one player would be left out of doubles. So, he created two teams, both called Minnesota Loons. That way, everyone had a doubles partner.” One of those teams, Minnesota Loons 1, won the regular team title in 1984, and all-events championships in 1984 and 1985. He won dozens of other singles and team events before he retired from competitive bowling, on the local and national stage. Toft’s son, Ron, said his father was a quintessential East Side guy who grew up playing at Hafner’s at 1560 White Bear Ave. “That was his wheelhouse,” he said. “His mother even let him skip school and play, three games for a buck. That was his one guilty pleasure.” Some of Toft’s teams were sponsored by local brewery Ham’s, Erika Fisher noted. “He never drank a drop of alcohol or smoked a cigarette,” she said. “Which is funny because that’s what most people think (bowlers) all did.” In 1991, Toft became the youngest person ever inducted into the USBC Hall of Fame at age 45. In 1983, he was part of the U.S. Pan Am Games team that won the silver medal in Caracas, Venezuela. He also won silver that year, at the same site, in the World Amateur Championships. “He was such a nice guy, and it was wonderful bowling with him,” said Mary Lou Vining-Berg, one of two St. Paul bowlers on the four-person Pan Am team. She and her doubles partner won bronze. Ron said his father stayed tight with a lot of the hockey players from his days at Johnson High, and that Herb Brooks once sent him a Western Union telegram congratulating him on one of his feats. “I remember I was in one of Herb’s hockey camps, and he was taking roll call. He said, ‘Toft. Toft. Are you Rod Toft’s kid?’” Ron said. “I said yes and he said, ‘Tell him I said congratulations.’” Toft is survived by Judy, Erika, Ron, daughter Jen (Kowalsky) and grandchildren: Ann and Ellie Fisher, Markus Toft, and Will, Lauren and Paige Kowalsky. “Many who knew him beyond 1991 had no idea he carried such high accolades in bowling,” said Erika, a teacher at Stillwater High School. “He only ever wanted to talk about his family.” A volunteer for Big Brothers Big Sisters, he participated in their annual fundraiser Bowl for Kids Sake and asked that all memorials go to Special Olympics bowling. “He was an athlete first, and the cream came to the top back in those days, unlike now when equipment kind of dictates how good you can be,” Ron said. “You had to be an athlete, and he was the cream of the crop back in the day.” A celebration of life will take place on Nov. 15 at Bradshaw Funeral Home in Stillwater. There will be a visitation from 1-3 p.m. and a short service following. Related Articles Sports | ‘48 Hours’ to highlight St. Paul fatal shooting of nurse Alexandra Pennig, whose killer claimed she died of suicide Sports | St. Paul celebrity chef Justin Sutherland arrested for allegedly violating no-contact order Sports | Speeding St. Paul driver causes multi-car I-94 crash in Minneapolis, officials say, leaving one dead Sports | St. Paul: Little Sisters of the Poor announce departure from Exchange Street elderly care home Sports | Our 2024 guide to the best burgers in the Twin Cities