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Cheerleaders sing "Loyalty" at 2005 reunion.

April 19, 2008

  • RHS web site editor, Helen Gunderson (class of 1963), has been digging in her video archives and experimenting with her video editing software. This week's results include two clips that we have posted from Rolfe's 2005 all-class reunion. Both are from the evening program at St. Paul's Lutheran Church. One is of the crew of former cheerleaders, taking the stage and leading the audience in the "Loyalty" with accompaniment from the community band. The other is of the band playing the "Loyalty." Many thanks to all the spirited musicians for bringing such a great amount of joy to the evening. And a special thanks to Marilee Kleespies for recruiting an intergenerational group of instrumentalists and leading the band for the occasion. The video files are in Windows Media format (wmv) and are large. Hopefully, many of you have high speed Internet connections and can them. If you have suggestions, please let us know. Thanks.

April 16, 2008

  • Arlene Rickard Steele (RHS class of 1965) died on April 10, 2008, in St. Charles, Missouri. There will be a memorial service for her on April 19 in St. Charles and another service on April 26 at the Celebration Center, Friendship Haven, in Fort Dodge. Fort Dodge Messenger obituary

March 8, 2008

February 22, 2008

There is a full obituary for Russel Jordan on-line at the Roland Funeral Services web site.

February 20, 2008

Former Rolfe area farmer, Russel Jordan, age 88, died on Tuesday, February 19. He had Parkinson's Disease for twenty years and was enrolled in Hospice for the past several weeks. He died at the Heritage House in Atlantic, Iowa.

Russel and his wife Mary Jane moved to a farm that they rented southwest of Rolfe in 1951. They returned to the Jordan family farm in the Atlantic area in 1975 after raising six children who graduated from Rolfe High School. Russel also was president of the Rolfe school board.

One of Russel and Mary Jane's daughters, Jeanne (RHS class of 1969), is a film editor in the Boston area and produces PBS-style programs. She and her cinematographer husband, Steve Ascher, produced a documentary about the Jordan homeplace that had been in the family since the Civil War.

Russel and Mary Jane nearly lost the farm to the bank in the early 1990s. The film, Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern, won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1996. It was shown in theaters across the nation and around the world. It also became part of the public television series, The American Experience.
Both Russel and Mary Jane had key roles in the film; however, Russel was the most out-spoken, and being a wonderful storyteller, he became somewhat of a international celebrity. Mary Jane died in 1995 after being ill with Lou Gehrig's disease.

Russel and Mary Jane are survived by their children, Pam (Gary) Wolfe of Elk Horn, Judy (Joe) Marnin of Anita, Janet (Mike) Sharpe of Red Oak, Jeanne Jordan (Steve Ascher) of Newton, Mass., Jim (Gini) Jordan of Atlantic, and Jon (Kim) Jordan of Atlantic. They also have many grandchildren and probably some great grandchildren. We have heard that Russel's memorial service will be on Sunday, February 24. His obituary in the Atlantic News Telegram says, "Services are pending at Roland Funeral Home in Atlantic."

February 10, 2008

February 1, 2008

  • Posted a small obituary for Glen Neugent and will attempt to post a more detailed obituary later.

  • Posted an obituary for Maureen "Sam" Pedersen who taught in the Rolfe grade school in the 1950s. She probably went by Miss Huston.

January 28, 2008

  • Glen Neugent, age 80, died on January 25, 2008, at Trinity Regional Medical Center in Fort Dodge. He was a resident of Rolfe, and in his early years in Rolfe had been manager of Iowa Electric. His funeral is Wednesday January 30 at 10:00 a.m. at the Lutheran Church in Rolfe. His wife Marjorie died in 1992. Their children are: Lynn Debel of North Branch, Minnesota; Michelle Lentsch of Clare, Iowa, and Steven Neugent, of Quincy, Illinois, who is back for the funeral from active duty in the military in Iraq.

January 21, 2008

"Whew!" That's what RHS web site editor, Helen Gunderson, said today when she finished posting the last of her scans, photos, and audio files from the RHS time capsules. The boxes were opened during the 2006 Greater Rolfe Days weekend at a public ceremony at the Rolfe Public Library.
Superintendent Joe Kramer and board members of the Pocahontas Area School District facilitated the event, which involved opening a box from 1917 and another left by the Class of 1928 that had several subsequent additions of material. Later that summer, with Kramer's permission, Helen spent several days at the Rolfe library, sorting through the materials and digitizing them. Then over the past several months, when she wasn't obsessed with gardening, other projects, or winter hibernating, she posted bits and pieces. Today, she completed the project.

The last item posted was a photo of a tin trophy with red ribbon from the Class of 1928 capsule. The note with the trophy says "Tennis Championship, Class Day 1928, Won by Russell Ives and Margaret Pollock." (click on photo for a larger view)

Helen says she posted the trophy last, imagining it as a metaphor for her own sense of personal triumph for completing the marathon of working with the time capsule materials. She says, "The project was fun, meaningful, and prompted a sense of nostalgia at times. But it was also tedious work, and a sense of responsibility hovered over my head for a long time. I am grateful to have the resources to do this kind of work. But I am also grateful to be finished. In the years to come, when I think back to this project I will remember that little tin trophy. Of course, there were a lot of other treasures in the time capsules that I will remember as well." 

For the record, Helen knew both Russell Ives and Margaret Pollock.

Other materials posted today include: the box from the Sony audio cassette tape that the Class of 1928 used at its 1968 reunion to record classmates' and Miss Marcum's thoughts, souvenir table decorations from the1978 reunion that included the Class of 1928 and Jayne Brinkman, president of the Class of 1978, and newspaper reports of the1978 reunion.

As it is, the time capsules and all the materials found in them are stored in the safe at Superintendent Kramer's office in Pocahontas. At least, that's the last word that Helen heard about the state of the capsules. She will copy all of her original time capsule files to DVD's and send them to Jeff Kerns, who is a 1978 graduate of Rolfe and on the board of directors of the PAC School District. Her intent is for him to take them to Kramer with the idea that the school will keep the set, make copies, and give them to the Pocahontas and Rolfe public libraries. The images on this web site are in low resolution. Persons wishing high resolution files to make quality copies should eventually be able to contact the superintendent or librarians to make arrangements for the files.

January 18, 2008

  • Dennis Pierce, former superintendent of the PAC School District and a key architect of the merger with the Rolfe schools in 1990, died today following a long ordeal with cancer. Pierce first came to Pocahontas in about 1977 or 1978 and was at the helm of the district until about five or six years ago.

What was new in 2007

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