Obituary

RALPH MORTENSEN

CEDAR FALLS - Ralph O. Mortensen, 93, of Cedar Falls, died Sunday, December 21, 2003, at Sartori Memorial Hospital.

He was born August 20,1910, near Spencer, son of Martin E. and Infer Hagedorn Mortensen. He married Alice S. Petersen on August 25,1937, in Cedar Falls.

Mr. Mortensen graduated from Royal High School in 1923, attended Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, and graduated from Iowa State Teachers College in 1931. He began his teaching career at Cherokee Indian Mission School in Oklahoma and beginning in 1940 returned to Iowa and was superintendent of schools in Quimby, then in Rolfe and at North Polk Schools, Alleman, where he retired. His tenure at the Rolfe schools began on July 1, 1948, and ended on July 1, 1959.

Survivors include: his wife; a son, Ivan (Larisa Ibragimova) of Spring Lake, Michigan, a daughter, Patricia Bailey of Des Moines; seven grandchildren, two step grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and two step great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by a son, John; three brothers, Louis, Edward and Leo; and two sisters, Marie Lee and Ethel Mortensen. Services were at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Nazareth Lutheran Church, with burial in Greenwood Cemetery. Arrangements were administered by the Dahl-Van Hove-Schoof Funeral Home.

Memorials may be directed to the church.

Superintendent Mortensen wrote an essay and also spoke at the 1995 all-class reunion. His remarks are in the audio gallery.