Ursula Conrad, of Bismarck, passed away at the age of 99, on Saturday, May 23, 2026 after battling dementia for more than 4 years.

Ursula was born in Winterthur, Switzerland, on September 17, 1926, to Emil Bretscher and Lucy (Brupbacher) Bretscher. Ursula, and brothers Emil, Uli & Fritz, grew up during the depression and World War II. She graduated from nursing school at the Lindenhof hospital in Bern in May of 1949. She immediately began what she planned would be working her way around the world. Her first stop was Greenfield, Massachusetts where her mother had trained and worked as a nurse during World War I. She discovered credential issues and moved to Minneapolis to train and work as a Stewardess for Northwest Airlines. In Minneapolis, she met and married Paul DeWahl and followed his teaching jobs to Isabella, MN; Phoenix AZ; Saalfelden, Austria and Stuttgart; Ansbach; & Augsburg Germany; Longview, WA; and Forest Lake, MN. In Arizona, she passed the state nursing exam after studying independently, and in Washington, she completed a bachelor’s degree. During this period, she raised four children – Marie (Olstad), Andi (Smith,) Karl & John. In Minnesota, Ursula worked as a school nurse in the Osseo and Roseville School Districts and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a Master’s Degree in Nursing.

Her marriage to Paul ended in 1970. In 1971 she moved to Bismarck, North Dakota to marry John Conrad and helped raise two of John’s five children, Gail (Conner) and Tracey (Conrad Katz).

Ursula taught at the University of Mary for several years. Later she organized Crippled Children’s Clinics for the State of North Dakota, inviting specialists for each condition to evaluate these children and make a plan to improving their condition.

After John Conrad’s death, and her retirement, at age 71 Ursula joined the Peace Corps and spent 3 years in Nepal. She taught hygiene and comfort care to families caring for sick family members. She identified a need to help crippled and deformed children in her remote region and began dialogues with doctors in Katmandu to help improve conditions for these children, resulting a new children’s hospital outreach program to identify and treat crippled and deformed children in remote regions of Nepal. She initially solicited funds from contacts, friends and family to help fund the surgeries and trips with family as caregivers to Katmandu, and contributed to a making a sustainable system for these funds to continue after she left the Peace Corps.

On her return to the United States, Ursula met and developed a life partnership with Dan Christ that continued to her death, where they shared discussions of philosophy, the meaning of life, politics and silent contemplation.

Throughout her life Ursula enjoyed the outdoors and activities like yoga, Tai Chi, hiking, biking swimming and canoeing. Some of her favorite places were Lake Tschida, the ND prairie, and the BWCA.

Ursula is survived by Dan Christ, her brother Fritz; children Andi Smith, Karl DeWahl, John DeWahl; 5 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Per Ursula’s wishes, her body currently resides at the UND medical School for educational purposes.

A Celebration of Ursula’s life will be held on June 10, 2026 at 6:30pm, at the Touchmark chapel, 1000 W Century Ave, Bismarck, ND 58503 Please bring memories and stories of Ursula to share.