RHS graduate, Steven J. Graeber takes up pottery. Read the Record-Democrat article.

Here are a series of articles relating to the damage and decision making related to the Rolfe Community School building damage of 2004.

Please click here to go to the tornado information page. The May 21, 2004 tornado damaged the Rolfe Golf Course, cemetery and local residents prior to the greater damage to the town of Bradgate.

Helen Gunderson has created three photo calendars of Rolfe scenes for use in 2004. The most intriguing is called Retrospectively Rolfe and contains a collection of black and white images from about 1903 to 1996. Many of the photographs are ones that Helen has borrowed over the last several decades from old-time residents of the Rolfe area.

There are a few copies of the calendar for sale at the Rolfe Public Library. They cost $5.00 apiece with the proceeds going to the library.

Interested persons may go to the calendar section of the Gunder-friend Productions web site and preview the images used in the calendars, check on prices, obtain other information, and find an order form.

Helen is a 1963 graduate of Rolfe High School and editor of the RHS Alumni Web Site. In the summer of 1993, she moved  back to Iowa from the Napa Valley in California and has made her home in Gilbert, just north of Ames.
 

The Pocahontas Record-Democrat newspaper has recently published some articles and opinions on the current condition and future of the local school district.

  Taylor's Topics - perspective on the importance of our school.
  PAC & Laurens-Marathon discuss sharing a superintendent
  PAC Enrollment Plummeting

Many RHS graduates and other Rolfe people may remember Dorothy Farlow. She was the single mom who operated a beauty shop in her white, two story, frame house just south of the main entrance of the school. Dorothy eventually remarried and moved from Rolfe. She is now Dorothy Gravlund, lives in Ayrshire, and has written two books that her son Jerry Farlow (RHS class of 1955) has posted on the Internet. As Dorothy says in the introduction to her web page:

"My name is Dorothy Gravlund and I would like to invite you to read two small books that I have written. The first one, Did I Tell You Spot Likes to Run, tells about and Iowa childhood from the 1920s and 30s, and the second book, Just What Does Go on in the Beauty Shop, tells about my experiences as a beauty operator in a small Iowa town during the 1950s and 60s. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed writing them."

We've convinced Jerry to shift Dorothy's work and his class of 1955 web site to our Rolfe alumni server. We're also working on him to make Dorothy's work available in a PDF file format that visitors can easily download, print, and read at their leisure in a conventional manner (i.e. away from the computer with a cup of hot coffee or herbal tea and maybe snuggled under a warm blanket on the couch during these cold winter days.) We'll keep you posted when Jerry has provided the PDF files.
 

Iowa authors James W. Roland, a rural Rolfe resident, and William H. Spetman will hold a book signing event. on Saturday, Dec. 14, from l-3 p. m. at Fran's World of Beauty/Praise Shop, 516 South Phillips, Algona, IA.

Their new book "The Chronicles of Seth: In Pursuit of Giants," has been published under the pen names Peter R. Sterling and Augustus R. Kelvin.

Featuring illustrations by acclaimed Canadian artist Lewis Lavoie, this adventure romance story is set in the time before the Biblical flood. A young army officer must rescue the woman he loves, and save them both from the world's most destructive weapon.

Copies are now available at Fran's World of Beauty/Praise Shop in Algona. Discover the World of Seth at: www.geocities.com/ol_bunc. For more information, please contact James Roland at (712) 848-3225, estorie@royal.net.

Roland was born and raised in Atlantic, and educated at home from the fourth to the 12th grades by his parents Warren and Amy Jo Roland.

He holds a B.A. in history from Northwestern College (St. Paul, MN) and is currently pursuing an M.A. in Christian thought at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (Deerfield, IL). Aside from writing and academics, Roland enjoys interests in travel, art, philosophy, sailing and outdoor adventuring.

Formative influences in fiction for him have been C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Stephen Lawhead. He resides in Rolfe with his wife Heidi and children Sophia, Maria and Peter.

William Spetman was born and raised in Iowa and currently resides in Atlantic. He holds a B.A. in business administration. Spetman's interest in writing began in grade school. Growing up on farms, he would sometimes sit in the hayloft of the barn on 'rainy days and write stories.

His awareness of the validity of creation science started at the Atlantic Evangelical Free Church which he still attends, and has been a major interest of his for almost 20 years. Creationist scientists such as Henry Morris, Duane Gish, Ken Ham, and others are authors who have influenced him.

from the Pocahontas Record-Democrat, December 11, 2002 page 4B
  

The Rolfe Enrichment committee, which is the main force behind the new community center, has announced two new fund-raising projects. It has created a design for a tapestry throw depicting scenes from Rolfe and the surrounding area. The committee is also recruiting recipes from current and former residents and friends of the town for a cookbook. The committee will sell both items and have them ready for delivery in time for Christmas presents.

(Click here to go to an archive of complete coverage of Main Street happenings from the razing of the tall buildings on the east side of the street to the progress of raising funds and planning for a new community center.)
  

Telephone: 712-848-3124
Address: 320 Garfield; Rolfe, Iowa, 50581
E-mail address: rolfe@ncn.net

Bill Winkleblack with the Rolfe Enrichment Committee
(he can be reached at the Rolfe State Bank where he is the executive vice president) 

Telephone: 712-848-3480
Address: 316 Garfield; Rolfe, Iowa, 50581
E-mail address: rlfstbnk@ncn.net
 

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