Jack Simpson

Former Odebolt resident, Jack Simpson passed away March 4, 2020 at the age of 93. He was a big part of the Odebolt community while he lived there, as was his wife Joan. They ran Singers Department Store, and Jack was post master, belonged to many Odebolt organizations and served on many boards.

I looked in the on-line Odebolt Newspaper Archive and found this article from Odebolt's newspaper, The Chronicle.

(Click the image to view the larger version.)

Below is Jack's obituary, taken from Farber & Otteman's on-line obituary archive

Jack Simpson, youngest son of Murel and Pearl (Cleveland) Simpson was born on a farm near Sac City on June 2, 1926.  He passed away at the age of 93 on Wednesday, March 4, 2020, at Loring Hospital in Sac City.

Jack grew up in and around Sac City, graduating from Sac City Public School in 1944.  He participated in athletics in high school, but track was his real love.  He became the 100 yard dash champion of the State of Iowa in 1944.  During the summer of 1944 he entered the United States Army serving two years and was discharged as an Army Sergeant. 

   In the fall of 1946 he enrolled at the University of Iowa to continue his education and participation in track.  He became the first freshman to lead the team in scoring and was elected Captain of the team.  He won four major letters while participating in track and became the first track athlete to accomplish this at the University of Iowa.  He received a Bachelor of Science Degree at the University in June of 1950.

   Jack and his wife operated a retail store in Odebolt for twenty-five years.  He went to work in the Odebolt Post Office in 1959 and continued working there until his retirement in 1987, retiring from the position of Postmaster.

   On August 22, 1948, Jack married Joan Schwitzer in Sac City.  To this union were born five children.  Their second child, Vickie Marie was born in 1951 and passed away in 1953.  Their youngest son, John, passed away in 2001.  Those remaining to mourn his passing include his wife Joan of Sac City; sons: Tom (Mary Kay) Simpson of Colorado, Greg Simpson of Salina, KS, daughter, Deborah (Doug) Haase of Denison, IA; eight grandchildren: Jessica, Kristin, Emily, Brandy, Wade, Colby, Emma and Jack; eleven great-grandchildren: and one great-great grandchild; extended family members and many friends.

   Jack was preceded in death by his parents; brother Milford Simpson; daughter Vickie and son John.

   Jack enjoyed participating in community affairs.  He served as an elder and deacon in the Odebolt First Presbyterian Church.  He had been a member of the American Legion, Odebolt Rotary Club, The Odebolt-Arthur Community School Board, Masonic Lodge, Odebolt Fire Department, and Board of Directors for Colonial Manor Nursing Home.

   Jack and Joan had wintered in Mesa, AZ since retirement and enjoyed their traveling and visiting children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

Death Notice

Dr. Fred Willman, 72, of St. Louis, Missouri, Professor of Music and Education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, died April 16, 2013, following a long battle with cancer.

Willman was vocal music director at Odebolt-Arthur Community Schools from 1965 to 1967.  People may remember the musicals "Carousel" and "The King and I" which were performed by the high school when he was director.

Thanks to Barb Votrobeck for sending in this clipping
from the May 22, 2013 issue of The Mapleton Press.

On-line obituary from Coe Exchange

Music Education Professor Fred Willman Obituary

Fred Willman, Founders Professor of Music and Education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis, died April 16 following a long battle with cancer.

Willman’s long and distinguished career began at UMSL as an assistant professor in 1974. He was named an associate professor in 1978 and full professor in 1987. Throughout his career he was recognized for his innovative curriculums for elementary and middle school general music methods courses. His publications include journal articles, two solely authored books, nine jointly authored textbooks, choral music and computer software.

Willman’s first love was teaching and he did it very well. In 2003 he was named a Distinguished Teaching Professor and received the title of Curators Professor in 2005. According to Clark, his students were devoted to him. Tens of thousands of students across the St. Louis region and beyond have benefited from his teachings.

Willman was named to the Missouri Music Educators Association Hall of Fame in 2012. A UMSL Daily story at the time quoted Robert Nordman, the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor in Music Education and chair of the music department.

“Dr. Fred Willman’s half century of extraordinary work in music education — nearly four decades at UMSL — have resulted in continued high praise from K-12 music teachers throughout Missouri and across the nation,” Nordman said. “Among these teachers are those who earned their BME or MME at UMSL and were among Fred’s students, as well as hundreds of others who learned from Fred’s many presentations at professional conferences.”

Contributions to the Fred Willman Music Education Scholarship Fund can be sent to: University of Missouri–St. Louis, 1 University Blvd, St. Louis, Mo. 63121, Attn: Maura Wuellner, 440 Woods Hall. The Department of Music will observe a moment of silence at its regular Friday Seminar Recital May 3.

Obituary project completed

A joint effort has recently been completed to place nearly 4,000 obituaries on "The Odebolt History Pages" web site. Covering the years of 1942 to 2004, the obituaries are of people from Odebolt and surrounding areas in Sac, Crawford & Ida County, Iowa. There are also many obituaries of people with area connections.

The obituaries were collected by Betty Raasch from Odebolt and donated to the Odebolt Museum. Betty had clipped them from newspapers, mounted them on construction paper and had them organized in 3 boxes, 1942 through 1980, 1980 through 1990, and 1990 through 2003.  They were alphabetized in each box.

Stephanie Fleenor and her mother, Deb Reinhart have been doing their own family history and thought it was only appropriate to place this collection on the web site to help other family historians.  Steph talked to Kathy Larson, Museum Curator, who gave the Museum's permission.

Steph and Deb placed each page in a sheet protector and numbered the pages. The obituaries were indexed listing the name, maiden name (if known), birth date, death date, and cemetery where buried, and placed in numbered binders.  Steph then scanned each obituary page into the computer and gave them index numbers.  Barb Horak converted the indexes into web pages, uploaded the images and provided links from the names to the obituary images.

The museum sponsors "The Odebolt History Pages", edited by Odebolt natives Barb Horak, from Cedar Rapids and her sister Bonnie (Girvan) Ekse, Ankeny. The web site has been on-line since July 2001. In that time it has grown to nearly 450 web pages containing the history of the Odebolt area as well as hundreds of historic photos. The addition of the obituaries adds over 900 more pages.

The obituaries can be accessed at Odebolt Museum Obituaries