Albert was born on September 24, 1909 in Clay County, Minnesota.  He was the ninth of the eleven children and the youngest of the five brothers.  His early years were typical for a boy on a Red River Valley farm in the early 1900's, with plenty to do and enjoy.

Albert's two oldest sisters were married by 1920.  At ten years of age, he already had a nephew and three nieces.  They were important to him, and Albert began to develop a lifetime fondness for the children of his brothers and sisters.   They numbered more than twenty by the time Albert had children of his own, and they all cherished their Uncle Albert.  

During the 1920's while Albert grew through his teen years, there were many exciting and creative adventures with his older brothers. As they left home one by one to work on farms and pursue other interest, his responsibilities at home grew as well.

Albert turned 21 in 1930 when the great depression was beginning.  By that time, he was the only brother still at home.  It certainly wasn't a lonely place, though.  His two younger sisters were still home, and his older sister, Elna, was living there with her husband, Bill Lebeda, and their three children.  By the mid-thirties, all of the Rosenquists were on their own.  Several had moved to Clearwater county, following Walter and Luella Sauer.  They had moved to Minerva township after their sixth child was born in 1924.  Albert lived where he could find work.  He spent most of his time working on various farms, but never strayed far from his family.  With six married sisters on farms in Clay and Clearwater counties, there were many work opportunities.  When there was farm work to do or new buildings to erect, Albert was often there to help.  He also served in the Civilian Conservation Corps during that time, as did many young men.  In 1933 and 1934, he was with Company 724, at the Kabetogama Lake Area Camp in Northern Minnesota.

In the late thirties, Joseph Rosenquist began building a new house on his farm in Minerva Township. Albert was there to assume his share of work.  Then, when his dad's fatal fall occurred on June 11, 1940, Albert's responsibilities became even greater.  He stayed on at the new home, keeping his mother company and running the farm until he was called into his country's service.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Albert was drafted into the army.  He was in the first medical regiment, and began his training in early 1942 at Fort Ord, California.  By March of 1943, his group was on maneuvers in Medford, Oregon; and by October of that year, he had been assigned to the 603rd Medical Clearing Company.  The company was part of the Sixth Infantry Division, under the command of Major General Franklin Cummings Sibert.  Before February of 1944, they were deployed to the Philippine Islands.  During the next two years, Albert spent time on several of the South Pacific islands.  His primary duty was at the Army's field hospitals, where he was responsible for helping maintain good sanitation.  He also served as a barber, and even managed to make use of his carpentry skills.

One of the many friends Albert made in the Philippines was a North Carolinian named Harvey Mustin.  When Harvey learned that Albert would like to find a girlfriend, he told him about a cousin back home, Althea Glenn.  Actually, Althea may have known about Albert before he knew about her.  In a 1944 Christmas letter to his sister, Elna, Albert said he had received "half interest in a fruit cake from North Carolina."  It's easy to imagine that Althea had asked her cousin to share the cake with his friend.  Whatever the case, a mail correspondence began that continued after the war was over.

Albert was sent home in October of 1945, two months after the Japanese surrender.  At that time, he was stationed at Hakodate, on Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan's larger islands.

Back in Minnesota, Albert lived and worked in several places. With the war behind him, he was back at his life of farming, logging, and building, but a change was coming.

Albert's long-distance romance with Althea Macy Glenn had grown into something serious.  He moved to the Winston-Salem and bought a seven-acre farm in Rural Hall, north of Winston-Salem.  Althea lived in Belews Creek, just east of the city.  She went to a nearby Methodist church.  Albert and Althea were married at the church parsonage on July 9, 1948.  The newlyweds caught a bus to Minnesota and stopped to spend a night in Chicago.  After the visit with Albert's family, they returned to live in Rural Hall.  Albert worked for a construction company and Althea also worked.  Their first child, Hal, was born in Winston-Salem on May 16, 1949.  In 1950, they went to Minnesota and moved into the log house in Minerva.  Their second child, Joel, was born in Bemidji on November 17, 1950.  By January 25, 1952, when Jerry was born, they were back in N.C., living in Belews Creek.  In the summer of 1953, Albert  moved to Clay county to build a new house for his sister, Ruth.  He and Althea lived in the Langseth's garage with their three boys during the project.  When the house was finished, they moved into Norman and Ruth's old house and spent the winter there.   Glenda, the fourth child, was born in Fargo, N.D. on May 8, 1954.  That same year, Albert built his own new house in Glyndon.  The next five years were divided between Glyndon and Belews Creek.  Albert did mostly carpenter work during that time period. 

The late 50's brought a crisis in Albert's life.  He was diagnosed with Lupus Erythematosis.  With doctors estimating that he had at most ten years to live, he was compelled to decide what was really important in life.  In 1959, the family moved back to the farm in Minerva.  Albert wanted to return to his favorite church, Grace Chapel, and the ministry of Spencer Bower, a man who genuinely knew God.  Oak Hills Fellowship in Bemidji was providing summer Bible camps for young people, and he already had his boys registered when they moved.  These things seemed especially important as their fifth and last child, Mervin, was born in Bagley on October 16, 1959.  The next few years brought difficult times financially as his health declined, but Albert kept his priorities in order as he did his best to raise his children with solid spiritual, as well as physical, nourishment.  When the Awana Bible Club came to the Bagley / Minerva area, he was quick to enroll his family and help in any way he could.  He was always generous and self-sacrificing; his service and devotion to God never took second place to anything else.

On May 18, 1966 (Althea's 51st birthday), Carl Albert Rosenquist died at the Veteran's hospital in Fargo, N.D.  He was 56 years old, and became the first of Joseph and Emma's eleven children to pass away.  He was buried in the Minerva cemetery.

Althea and the family moved back to North Carolina in 1967.  They lived in Belews Creek in a house Albert had built years earlier for Althea's sister.  Two of her brothers and one sister lived within walking distance.  In 1989, Althea moved to the N.C. mountains and lived with Glenda's family in Asheville.  She died from a brain tumor on May 27, 1995, nine days after her 80th birthday.  She was buried in a Presbyterian cemetery in East Asheville.