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December 29, 2010
- We have heard that Doris McKim Henderson, a graduate of
Plover High School and a resident of the Rolfe community
from 1954 to 1996, died last night. Her husband
Lawrence
died in 2005. Doris and Lawrence
were the parents of Allen Henderson (RHS 1970) and Connie
Henderson Boyd (1974).
December 28, 2010
- We have heard that Jim Hulgan of the RHS class of 1970
died on November 7. He had resided in Perry.
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December 12, 2010 |
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Esther H. Wilson, age 83, of Rolfe, died on December 9
at the Rolfe Care Center where she had resided for
several years after moving back to the Rolfe area from
Arizona. Memorial services will be held at a later date.
Powers Funeral Home of Rolfe is in charge of
arrangements. For online condolences,
visit www.powersfh.net.
Esther originally came to Rolfe as a young music
teacher in the 1940s. She immediately met the eye of and
was soon married to Rolfe school board member, businessman
and insurance agent,
Jim Wilson. He
was a 1928 graduate of Rolfe. Esther and Jim lived on a
farm southeast of Rolfe and were active leaders in many
aspects of community life as well as Republican politics. They also raised Jim's two
children from his first marriage: Janis Sue Cerasani of
the RHS class of 1958 and Jim Wilson, who many
classmates remember as Jimmy, from the class of 1961.
The elder Jim died in 1998 in Sun City, Arizona.
Esther's obituary |
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George Louis Lanus, age 67,
died on November 19, 2010, at the Rolfe Care Center. He was born
in 1943, at Rolfe to Roy and Edna (Beuchle) Lanus. George grew
up on the family farm and graduated from Rolfe High School in
1961. After completing his education, he served in the U.S.
Air Force for four years. |
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Following his discharge
from the service, he engaged
in farming for several years. George
drove semi-trucks, worked with cable television and did a lot of
carpentry work before he was forced to retire due to failing
health. He enjoyed woodworking, fishing and camping in his spare
time.
George's biography |
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Blanche
Gardewine died on January 23 in Pocahontas. She was born in 1915
at Rolfe to John and Mabel (Bendixson) Witt. Blanche attended local country
schools for the early grades and then graduated from Rolfe High School in 1932.
She taught country school upon graduation from high school. |
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Blanche married Roger Gardewine in1936, at Pocahontas. The
couple lived in the state of Illinois for a few years, and then moved back to
Iowa to live and farm. Roger died on January 13, 1995, and Blanche remained on
the farm until a few years ago, when she entered the Pocahontas Manor.
Blanche and Roger had one child, Ronald, who graduated from Rolfe in 1955.We
heard late today that Ronald died this weekend.
Blanche's
biography |
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December 10, 2010 |
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Juanita "Jackie" Loraine Snook Widstrup passed away
peacefully in her sleep on November 3rd, 2010. She was
born on December 24th, 1937, in Rolfe and graduated from
the Rolfe schools in 1955. With her husband in the Navy,
she lived in Boston, San Diego, and Charleston before
settling down in Decatur, Alabama.
obituary |
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December 9, 2010
- We apologize for the lapse in posting materials. Our
editor is having some remodeling done at her home, and her
workhorse computer with Web site software has been
disconnected for several weeks. Now she has it set up in a
temporary office that she calls her bunker in the basement.
If you have obituaries or other material that you think
should be posted, please send them
to us. Thanks.
- Sara Beckord Swails, who organized a reunion this summer
for the women from the RHS class of 1968, has sent us
material
about one of her classmates, LaNell Ramsvig Sado. LaNell
died on October 1, 2008. The women at the reunion had a
memorial ritual in her honor and left a candle burning for
her throughout the weekend.
- DeNita Diane Denton has informed us that her mother,
Juanita Snook Widstrup, who was a member of the RHS class of
1955, has died. We will post Juanita's obituary within a few
days. She was one of 13 siblings and is survived by four of
them.
October 25, 2010
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There was thunder,
lightening, and rain as well as a full moon in the Rolfe
area on Saturday night. Prior to the storm, there had
been weeks of dry weather that followed a growing season
with near-record rainfall. The result of the wet
conditions was that, for many farmers, the yields were
smaller than normal.
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Betsy Dahl,
sister Heidi, and
niece Sophia harvest corn |
On the other hand, the benefit of the dry spell was that
farmers incurred little cost for drying their corn since
it came out of the fields extra dry. And due to the law
of supply and demand, the prices for corn and beans at
the Pro Coop currently are relatively high.
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The unfortunate aspect of the market is that many
farmers pre-sell a third or more of their grain months
ahead of harvest, thinking that prices will fall with
the abundance of grain at harvest time. And in most
years, that has been a wise strategy. But having to
fulfill a contract set in June at $3.30 per bushel of
corn is a bit of a bummer when the harvest day price is
up to $5.03 per bushel and a few days later is $5.11.
Usually, when the media reports that grain prices are
sky high, the public thinks farmers are making it rich.
But seldom are farmers able to take advantage of the top
prices.
But putting aside
concerns about profit and losses, last week was beautiful,
not only for those people harvesting and hauling the grain,
but for spectators hanging out in a field and those wanting
to photograph the harvest.
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October 24, 2010
- We apologize that the "where
they are now" section is not functioning properly. Yes,
you can search for information about classmates, but right
now, if you enter new information, it disappears. We are
working to chase down the gremlins. If you feel so inclined,
you could donate funds so we could hire help to revamp
and modernize some of our sections, especially the "where
they are now" and
"memorial
board" tables.
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October 8, 2010
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Blanche DeWolf, age 98, of Pocahontas, died on
October 6 at the Pocahontas Manor. She and her late
husband, Wesley, farmed south of Rolfe where they
raised three children and lived for almost 50 years.
Their son, Jack, was in the RHS class of
1956. Their daughters, Nancy and Linda, were in the RHS
classes of 1962 and 1967.
obituary |
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October 5, 2010
- We realized this morning that there was no clear access
to some bulletin board material that we posted in the early
years of this Web site. So we have made an
index to those pages. If any of you missed reading them
when originally posted or want to reread them, have at it.
In our humble opinion, some of the thoughts are worth
reading more than once.
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September 29, 2010 |
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Karen M. Baade Pedersen, age 63, died on September 23 at
her home in Scotts Valley, California. She grew up in the
extended Rolfe area but graduated from Havelock-Plover High
School in 1965. Some of her younger siblings graduated from
Rolfe in the 1970s. Karen was married to David Pedersen of
the RHS class of 1963.
obituary |
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Goldie Marie Luft, 98, of Emporia, Kansas, formerly of
Humboldt and Rolfe died on September 6, 2010 at Newman
Regional Health in Emporia. She graduated from RHS in 1930.
obituary |
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September 28, 2010
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On June 11-13, 2010 the girls from the class of 1968
gathered for their “1968 RHS Girls Weekend Reunion” in Iowa City
at the home of Sara Beckord Swails.
Click for larger view. |
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Attending the weekend celebration were Alice Rickard
Gough, Brenda DeWall Dodge, Debbie Erickson Poppen, Kathleen
Rickard Gentes, Linda Boeckholt Tiernan, Sandy Spencer
Behrendsen, Sara Beckord Swails, and Susan Wilson Whitaker. Barb
Trimble Post, Marcia Hansen Marchant, Ronda Accurso Mattey, and
Sue Bintz Pederson were unable to come.
more
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September 3, 2010
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On Friday, July 9, 2010, classmates from the Rolfe High
School class of 1960 gathered at the Primetime
restaurant in Algona for their 50th anniversary reunion.
Click for larger view. |
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Those in attendance
included: Tom Bennett, Pat Calligan, Joyce (Johnson)
Carlson, Patti (Spiker) Collett, Marvin Dornath, Ken Graaf,
Raymond Heald, Clara (Gunderson) Hoover, Bill Johnson, Gary
Larson, Judy (Wagner) Larson, Delbert Lowe, Mary (Cox) Lowe,
Marlys (Bartosh) Malecek, Karen (Peters) Orwig, Rachel (Heald)
Perry, Janet (Pederson) Rabbit, Sharon (Wickre) Rickard,
Nancy (Bennett) Wiuff,
Gary Wolfe, Pam (Jordan) Wolfe, Bob Nielsen (teacher) and
Charlene Fox (teacher). On Saturday, many of the attendees
were joined by three other classmates: Larry Stegge, Sandy (Monteith)
Hovey, and Karen (Kirchner) Herr, and participated in
Greater Rolfe Days activities.
Click here to go to class of 1960
elementary school photo and video. |
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September 7, 2010 |
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Reading a notice of a sale of land owned by the Mary
Jane Dow trust led us to suspect that Mary Jane, a 1936
graduate of Rolfe High School, had died. So we did a little
research and learned that she had passed away on November
23, 2009. We have posted her
obituary
from the Salt Lake City Tribune with slight modifications to
tell about her Rolfe connections. |
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August 14, 2010
- Occasionally something comes across our desk that we
think worth sharing whether it is a documentary film about a
social justice issue, a recipe, or news of a Rolfe graduate.
In this case, it is story from yesteryear about two
well-known men in the Rolfe area. The story comes from Mary
Le Nelson Clark (RHS 1954) and is about
Deane Gunderson
(1935), who died this summer, and her father,
LeRoy Nelson (1927),
who died in 2003. Enjoy.
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from Mary Le Nelson Clark
I've always loved the story
about Deane and my father, LeRoy Nelson, meeting in front of the
Rolfe State Bank. Deane had a belt on that was up to the very
last hole. Dad looked at it and said, "Deane, your belt is too
short." Deane looked at Dad's belt which had a long flap and
said, "LeRoy, your belt is too long." Right there on Main
Street, in front of the bank, they each pulled off their belts
and made the exchange. |
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August 5, 2010
- We have posted a
YouTube slide
show about Anita Beckord that her family created for her
memorial service.
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August 4, 2010 |
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Obituary
Anita Mae Miller Beckord of Longmont,
Colorado, passed away August 3, 2010 at her Hover
Village home. She was 91.
Anita was born April,16 1919 in Havelock, Iowa, to
George and Sarah Buck Miller. She grew up in nearby
Rolfe, Iowa, where she graduated from high school in
1936.
more |
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August 3, 2010
- Several days ago, Sara Beckord wrote to say that her
mother, Anita Miller Beckord (RHS 1936), had been admitted
to Hospice in Colorado. This afternoon, Bruce Beckord wrote
to say Anita "passed away very peacefully this morning at
about 10:00. Services will be on Saturday at Westview
Presbyterian church in Longmont." Anita and her husband,
George, owned and
operated Beckord's Hatchery in Rolfe. In 1979, they retired
to Estes Park, Colorado. Later they lived in Longmont where
George died in 1996. Anita and George have four surviving
children: Sydney (1958), Bruce (1961), Sara (1968), and John
(1964). Their son Don
(1962) died in 1997 from complications of
diabetes.
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August 3, 2010 |
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Martin DeWall (RHS 1941) died on July 31 at the
Pocahontas Community Hospital. Martin and Lenora DeWall
farmed in the Pocahontas County area until retiring in
Pocahontas in 1988. Their children include Brenda (1968),
Dennis (1970), Sharon (1975), and Garry (1977). |
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Emondeane Ricklefs, age 85, died on May 25 at the Rolfe
Care Center. Emondeane and her husband,
Bernard Ricklefs,
who attended Rolfe High School, farmed south of Rolfe and
raised three children: Tim (1963), Bennet (1966), and Susan
(1967). Bernard died in 2003. |
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July 14, 2010
Some Rolfe folk have been working on a grant with the
idea of improving the looks of the town. They recently sent
out a news release about an upcoming public meeting to
unveil their vision and a
flyer
that gives a glimpse of their vision.
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Rolfe, IA (July 12, 2010) – On Thursday,
July 22, starting at 4:00 pm, residents of
Rolfe will have the opportunity to view the
final conceptual landscape plan for the
community during a public showing at the
Farmers Market. A formal presentation of the
proposed designs will be held at 5:30 in the
Community Center.
Landscape architect, Jen DeWall, Andrew
Kraemer, student intern from Iowa State
University, Trees Forever field coordinator,
Barb Grabner-Kerns, and members of the Rolfe
visioning committee will be available to
explain the plan and answer any questions.
Some of the areas that have been addressed
in these plans include new trail
development, main street beautification, and
interpretive and wayfinding signage.
Residents who want more information or who
are interested in participating in the
visioning process should contact
Gloria
Gunderson, committee chair or Barb
Grabner-Kerns, Trees Forever Field
Coordinator, at 515-576-3436.
The next steps of the visioning committee
include presentation of cost estimates, and
planning for implementation of projects from
the conceptual design plan. This is
scheduled for Tuesday, August 10 at 5:30
p.m. in the Community Center. Everyone is
always welcome.
The Iowa’s Living Roadways Community
Visioning Program is sponsored by the Iowa
Department of Transportation in partnership
with Iowa State University Extension
Landscape Architecture and Trees Forever.
flyer |
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July 9, 2010
- We have corrected and added to the
memorial page for
Deane Gunderson. One of the items is a set of memories from
Wayne and Anita Beal of Ames who knew Deane when he was on
the Iowa Association of School Boards.
July 5, 2010
- Glenn Markley of the class of 1955 informed us that
Darlene Burns, age 96 of Rolfe, died this morning. There
will be a viewing at 9 a.m. on Thursday, July 8, and a
funeral service will follow at Powers Funeral Home.
- We have posted the
official obituary
for Deane Gunderson who died on July 1 and some
home movies and video
clips that were created for his 90th birthday
celebration in 2008.
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July 1, 2010 |
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Deane Gunderson, a 1935 graduate of RHS and a retired Rolfe farmer, died
peacefully at the Israel Family Hospice House in Ames on July 1,
2010. It was an idyllic day with sunshine, blue skies,
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and billowy, white clouds with temperatures in the 80s. After a month of many inches of rain, the day's weather was perfect
for growing corn and soybeans–the two crops grown on Deane's land.
more |
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June 25, 2010
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The RHS class of 1960 will celebrate its
50th anniversary at a reunion in Algona on July 9 with some
classmates attending Greater Rolfe Days events the
next day. Web site editor, Helen Gunderson (RHS 1963),
created a short YouTube tribute to the class.
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The video uses
movies shot by Superintendent Ralph Mortensen in the
1950s, photos that Helen's sister, Clara Gunderson
Hoover, had collected of members of the class of 1960,
and music by Emily Anderson. Coincidentally, Clara
celebrates her birthday on July 9. Best wishes to the
class, and happy birthday to Clara.
(Click on photo for a larger view.) |
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May 16, 2010
- Today's edition of the Des Moines Register
carried an
update on the status of Heather DeJoode.
May 13, 2010
- Mary Lyon, who was a Rolfe
elementary school teacher from 1965-1976, died on May 4 at
the age of 98 in Spencer.
obituary
- Our condolences to Mark Eccles (RHS 1969) of Cedar
Rapids and his family. Mark's daughter, Heather DeJoode of
Ankeny, was recently involved in a truck-car accident that
killed her five-year old son Carson and five-month-old
daughter Claire. Heather and her son Chase survived. Carson
and Claire are the great-grandchildren of Guy (RHS 1940) and
Mary Ellen Eccles of Rolfe.
WHO newstory
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May 10, 2010
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May 4, 2010
- The
Rolfe
Public Library is nearing completion of a project to
digitize 110 oral history interviews conducted in 1980 and
1981 of a variety of Rolfe people. The interviews were
recorded on audio cassette tapes but will be available on
CDs at the library. Interested persons can also arrange to
obtain CDs for their own collections.
Recently, the library embarked on a project to digitize 33
rolls of microfilm of the Rolfe Arrow and related
newspapers, such as the Rolfe Reveille, with
publication dates ranging from 1888 to 1989. The goal is to
post the digital version of the newspapers on-line by
February 2011 where visitors will be able to use the Web
site’s search tool to find key words.
more
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April 9, 2010 — Editor's corner by Helen Gunderson |
| Life
here in Ames is full with gardening and plenty of napping to deal with
fuzziness in my system that is probably a reaction to
stuff in the springtime air. However, I did get time to shorten
the video that I produced in 1997 about the road I where I grew up.
The show is now 10 minutes long and short enough to post on YouTube.
Some of you may have already seen it in a 13-minute WMV file. Hopefully, by
being on YouTube, it will get more visibility. I will embed the
program here, add some thoughts about Miss Marcum, then plant onion
seedlings that I started a few weeks ago. They need to get in the
ground before they perish in the containers, which are the
bottoms of gallon milk jugs.
more |
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April 8, 2010 |
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Mary Elizabeth (McEwen) Nelson, age 99, died on April 3
at the Rolfe Care Center where she had been a resident for
several years. Mary was born in Plover, then moved to Rolfe
at the age of two and graduated from Rolfe High School
in 1928. She and her husband,
LeRoy, farmed east
of Rolfe on Meadow-Run Farm. He was in the RHS class of 1927
and died in 2003.
obituary |
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March 14, 2010 — Editor's corner by Helen Gunderson |
| Although I have
recorded several interviews that are posted on
this site and elsewhere, I had never recorded
one over the phone. That
changed this week. I have been figuring out the
necessary, but rudimentary hardware, and did my first experiment
on Wednesday night. And Jerry Farlow of the class of 1955 was
a willing subject for the experiment. His mother
Dorothy Farlow had a beauty parlor in their home
across the street, south of the entrance to the
main part of the Rolfe school, and that is part
of the context of the interview. Jerry is
currently a professor of mathematics at the
University of Maine. His wife Susan is a travel
writer, and they travel extensively. Also, Jerry
has written several pieces for this Web site. I'll write
more later, but for now, I will simply add this
link to
the MP3 file of the 34-minute edited version
of the conversation. I will be interested in how
the audio quality, including the volume levels,
work. I would also like to know if you would
prefer one long file or having an interview
divided into shorter segments. So, if you wish,
please send me
your feedback. Thanks. |
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March 9, 2010 — Editor's corner by Helen Gunderson
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It's been over 10
years since the Rolfe Alumni Web site was first
published. We have strived to recruit people to
write essays, and toward that end, we have received
pieces from
about 60 people. The recruiting process was
not an easy one, and most of what we have was submitted
nearly a decade ago. Also, there were those people, including former
faculty, who said they would write, but have not
followed through. Then there are other folks such as Jerry Farlow (1955) and me
(1963) who have
written several pieces. In fact, we recently posted a new
essay
(or call it a story) from Jerry, and he says he has
yet another that he is perfecting and intends to submit this
spring.
more |
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February 13, 2010 |
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Jerry Farlow (RHS 1955) sent an
email today,
saying he was one of the runners in the recently-posted
home movies that
Superintendent Mortensen shot in the 1950s. So we created a
section for
comments related to the films. Thanks Jerry. We welcome other
RHS-related people to join in the fun of
sending us info and memories to
post. |
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February 11, 2010 |
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Finally, we have overcome technical gremlins and have posted
some home movies of Rolfe school activities on YouTube. |
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They were shot by
the late Ralph O. Mortensen when he was superintendent
of the Rolfe Community School District in the mid-1950s.
Click here to go
to a full page of the clips. |
February 7, 2010
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Today something happened that is just the
kind of thing that makes it exciting to publish this Web
site. Jerry Farlow (RHS class of 1955) emailed us another
reflection of his days growing up in Rolfe to add to our
essay section.
It's his fourth piece, and
this one is
about delivering newspapers and a scheme he had to win a new
Schwinn bicycle. It's been awhile since we have posted new
essays (or much else for that matter), and we're thankful to
Jerry and hopeful that others of you will
send us some of your thoughts
and/or stories.
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February 7, 2010 |
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Raymond W. DeWall, who graduated from Rolfe
in 1949 and farmed between Rolfe and Pocahontas, died at the
age of 79 on Friday at the Pocahontas Manor. Funeral
services will be held 10:30 a.m. Saturday, February 13, at
the St. Peter Lutheran Church in Pocahontas with Rev. Jack
Kahle and Rev. Robert Dodge officiating. Burial will be in
Summit Hill Cemetery in Pocahontas. Visitation will be from
4 to 7 p.m. Friday, February 12, at the Powers Funeral Home
in Pocahontas. For online condolences and obituaries, visit
www.PowersFH.net. |
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February 6, 2010
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Well, we have been there, done something
like this before. But we will try again to have a RHS alumni
message board. This time will we have set up a
Yahoo
group for Rolfe alumni. If interested, go to the
site.
If you are already a Yahoo user, the process should be
simple enough, and you will know generally what to expect.
If you are not familiar with Yahoo, the process may seem
challenging, but if so, contact
editor Helen Gunderson for help. As usual with the RHS
Web site, we expect civility from those using our Yahoo
message board.
February 5, 2010
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Jann
Brinkman Ricklefs (RHS class of 1972) wrote us this week
to say that she and other alumni are forming a reunion
committee. Customarily, the all-class reunion has been held
every five years (i.e. 1990, 1995, 2000, and 2005.) However,
in its first decision, the planning group has decided to
hold the next all-class event, not in 2010, but in 2013,
when the town of Rolfe will celebrate its sesquicentennial
(150th) anniversary. committee
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