MDN File Photo Gordon “Crazyfingers” Lindquist performs at the 2024 Norsk Hostfest in Minot, wearing one of his many piano-playing hats.

An extraordinary entertainer and an even more extraordinary human being is how friends are remembering Gordon “Crazyfingers” Lindquist of Bottineau. Lindquist, an accomplished pianist known for stunts such as playing upside down, died Nov. 28 in a vehicle crash near Garrison.

Upbeat and encouraging, he saw the good in everyone, said Lois Schaefer of Bottineau, who formerly taught at Dakota College at Bottineau during Lindquist’s tenure there.

“Kind, always happy, always with a smile on his face, always positive. I don’t think I knew him any other way than that,” she said. Even others have commented Lindquist made you feel as if you were important – like a million dollars and the only person in the room, she said.

Pastor Jonathan Starks and his son, Daniel, both Ryder, met Lindquist in 2019 at a wedding, at which Jonathan officiated and Daniel sang and played guitar. Lindquist was at the piano.

“We’d all heard of Gordy – the legend, of course – but that was the first time we got to talk to him and meet him,” Daniel Starks said. “From there, we became such fast friends. Every Hostfest, we’d track each other down. And we haven’t missed an opportunity to see him since. Such a performer. Every show unique.

“Knowing Gordy and his legacy and his professionalism and excellence on stage, when you watch him, you’re just blown away,” he said. “It’s so funny how you can watch him and be absolutely amazed, but when you get to talk to him one on one, he has this way of making each and every person feel special.”

“He’s a big deal, but you’d never know that being around him,” Jonathan Starks added. “He just had such a humility about him and he was always putting other people first. I think of all the years he traveled with Myron Floren and other big names. But you wouldn’t know that just visiting with him.”

Lindquist was noted for his sense of humor, both in his shows and in his relationships with people. Jim Clifford of Minot became a close friend after meeting Lindquist about 10 years ago at one of the many shows he played in Arizona during the winters. He said he once offered to drive Lindquist to a performance near the Mexican border. Lindquist asked if they instead could ride Clifford’s motorcycle there.

“So, he would kid everybody that I took him down on the motorcycle with his piano,” Clifford said.

Clifford said Lindquist considered his birthday last Nov. 20 a special one because he turned 88 – the same number as keys on a piano.

“He was a great guy. He was a people person,” Clifford said.

Lindquist loved the “social” in social media as well and often posted his thoughts. On his birthday, he received 402 posts from well-wishers, Clifford said.

Lindquist once posted he thought about retiring when he reached his 88-year milestone birthday. However, he changed his mind and announced he would retire when he no longer could play upside down and get up off the piano bench.

“His life was making people happy,” said neighbor and friend Roger Heidbreder, Bottineau. “He was just a guy that went around and entertained and made people happy – and everyone from young kids to old people.”

One place he frequented was the veterans’ hall in Bottineau, where he would give impromptu concerts, including playing all the military songs, Heidbreder said.

“He wasn’t always looking for big venues and lots of acclaim, because he also took the time to go to nursing homes and assisted living centers and places where the elderly would also appreciate and enjoy his music,” said guitarist Gene Putnam of Minot, a Bottineau native who bonded with Lindquist over many years on Norsk Hostfest stages. He recalled Lindquist attended the performances of other Hostfest entertainers each day because he enjoyed listening to all types of music.

“He just made everybody feel special. He made you feel like you did a great job, and even if you didn’t feel that way, he made you feel that way,” Putnam said. “He was just always upbeat, happy, and he really got a lot of joy from entertaining people and blessing them with his music, making them happy, making them feel joyful.”

Although Lindquist entertained with tricks such as playing a sheet-covered piano wearing leather mittens, he was a true virtuoso who could play anything, Putnam said. He loved taking song requests from the audience, and Putnam once challenged him, in a fun way, to play something from Russian classical composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, who is known for especially difficult pieces. Without any objection or reluctance, Lindquist sat down at the piano and began to play a piece Putnam immediately recognized as Rachmaninoff.

Those who knew Lindquist recall how happy it made him to see others experience success with their music.

Daniel Starks said Lindquist would remind him how proud he was of him as a music educator. Not only does Starks teach music, as Lindquist once did, but he teaches in Max, where Lindquist got his start.

A biography provided in a news release published in The Minot Daily News noted Lindquist grew up on a farm southwest of Max. After graduating from Max High School in 1955, he graduated from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, with a degree in music and started his teaching career in his hometown, teaching at Max High School from 1959 to 1963. During this time, Lindquist also obtained his Master’s degree in music from Colorado State College at Greeley.

Lindquist’s stage name of “Crazyfingers” came about after Gordy was booked at the Ramada Inn in 1963, along with the band Crazy Fingers, The manager of the Ramada at the time thought it would be a good stage name for Lindquist.

Lindquist continued his career as a music teacher in Westhope from 1963 to 1968 before he accepted a position in Santa Cruz, California. In the fall of 1972, Lindquist accepted a teaching position at Dakota College in Bottineau and was a music professor there for 34 years. He retired in 2006.

Travis Rybchinski, head hockey coach at DCB, had been a student in Lindquist’s music appreciation class.

“He was excellent,” he said. “It was always a packed room because so many people liked the way he taught the class, and he made music fun.”

When Rybchinski joined the DCB staff in 2001, he was able to get to know Lindquist better. Lindquist would attend an occasional college game as well as attend his children’s concerts, Rybchinski said. Lindquist was a fan of the community, whether it was sports or music, he said.

“He had a way of – just visiting with him – making your day better. So, if you were having a good day, it would turn into a great day, and if you were having a bad day, he’d turn it into a good day,” he said.

Nancy Olson, who taught instrumental music at Bottineau Public School when Lindquist was at DCB, said they shared much in common, which led to a friendship and a sense of coming together as colleagues.

When Lindquist downsized from his house to an apartment, he spoke with Olson about selling his piano due to limited space. Olson talked him out of it.

“I said your piano is more important than any other piece of furniture in your house. If you think you don’t have room, I said, then buy some folding chairs or buy some of those stackable patio chairs. When you get company, use those for your people to sit on. But I said, your piano is your number one thing in your house,” she recounted. There were days afterwards when he would encounter her and thank her for her wise advice.

“I know he wouldn’t have lasted without a piano. He would have had to get another one,” she said.

When Lindquist retired from DCB, the college discontinued the music program, which almost broke his heart, Olson said. It helped, though, that the public school took in all the musical instruments to put them to good use.

“He felt really good about that because he had put his heart and soul into that program,” Olson said.

“He was so thankful for any of those college kids that wanted to be a part of his band and his choir,” she added. “It didn’t bother him if the band was a mismatch of instruments. He would rewrite or transpose parts so that they sounded great. And there were kids that attended the college that had probably never done a solo in their life, but he gave them that confidence and that courage to stand up there to either sing a solo or play a solo on their instrument.”

He was such a good accompanist that if a nervous student suddenly derailed on a solo, he would so smoothly transition them back on track that the audience never noticed, she said.

“As talented as Gordy was and as much as Gordy could have gone on and made it much bigger someplace else,” Olson said, “he wanted to be in this small community and then work at that small community college. We were so fortunate to have him.”

While at DCB, in 1984, Lindquist joined the Joe Alme Band. The band backed up performers such as George Burns, Bob Hope, Red Skeleton, Myron Floren and many Lawrence Welk stars. In 2008, Lindquist joined Country Blend, a five piece Canadian band that performed classic country and gospel music.

Lindquist performed for about 40 years at Norsk Hostfest in Minot. Lindquist entertained with accordionist Myron Floren for 24 successive years, and a 1958 Norway tour with Floren and the Joe Alme Band was one of the highlights of his entertainment career, according to his biography.

Dustin and Devon Dahlien of Fargo, who grew up just outside Minot, connected with Lindquist in high school and middle school through family members who became acquainted with Crazyfingers at Hostfest. They also played in a family band, so a friendship easily developed over their shared musical interests.

Dustin Dahlien said Lindquist always amazed him.

“I was shocked how fast he was on the piano, even at his age. He just hadn’t lost a beat. He had the energy and was just so entertaining. It was very inspiring to see someone his age still continuing to do that,” he said.

Watching Lindquist not only inspired him to want to be better, he said, but it encouraged him to believe there is a path to making a living at what you enjoy.

As a young pianist, Devon Dahlien said he heard Lindquist playing the kind of music he was trying to learn. Lindquist became his role model as he worked to develop his own talent.

“It was definitely just a benchmark – to see what I could actually seek to accomplish in the future,” he said. “Definitely, very inspirational.”

He noted that while there might be pianists who are as technically proficient as Lindquist, no one can fully replicate him as an entertainer.

“It was just a great show, and a great performer and even better guy,” he said.

Lindquist was inducted into the Dakota Musicians Association Hall of Fame in May 2019.

Searle Swedlund, executive director of Norsk Hostfest, said Lindquist’s longevity as an entertainer speaks to his loyalty to his fans.

“He went to all lengths to make sure he was there for people – to entertain them,” he said. “You didn’t have to know Gordy to know the kind of guy he was when you saw the ways in which he brought joy to people.”